Humanity
by Erin Elric
Summary: Kaku had always wondered what it would be like to feel "human" after the defeat of CP9 he gets his opportunity when he finds himself on the Thousand Sunny. Will being with the Straw Hats give him that opportunity? Or will he get more than what he bargained for? (AU not following the cannon)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello and welcome, this fanfiction is going to be "AU" pretty much I AM NOT going to follow the storyline in the One Piece manga with Kaku on the Straw Hat crew. That has already been done :) The Prolog is also going to be the only part in the story told in first person. **

Humanity

Prolog

You know I had always thought I had everything figured out. That was until I was assigned to Water 7. I soon learned what happiness was what it felt like to feel… alive feel human. Something I never had the pleasure of feeling when I was with CP9 well it was more like something I wasn't allowed to feel.

Trained all my life to burry my feelings to only think of the mission I was never given a chance to live to feel free. Well I decided to take that chance.

I can't remember much before CP9 very well. Heck I can only remember as far back to the age of ten when I killed someone for the first time. I remember feeling sick afterwards. I wasn't like Lucci who accepted it as a normal part of life no I was the rebel. I barely survived my so called childhood fighting just to stay insane loosing myself into making model ships in bottles. Hours turned to days and days to years. Many missions came and gone until I was the age of eighteen. That was when I was assigned to Water 7 with Lucci. I remember it was one of the few times I honestly felt happy. Spending some night at the bar with the Galley-La crew, forming a friendship with Paulie and for once I was doing something I wanted to do… be a shipwright.

That was until we finally had to finish our mission. Normally, finishing a mission left me some sense of accomplishment but this one didn't. The whole time I felt something in the pit of my stomach…

I can say the last thing I remember after that was the fight with Zoro… and losing. I remember feeling like my body was burning when I regained consciousness. I kept fading in and out of the darkness. I could hear everyone talking… I soon realized they were trying to figure out what to do with me and Lucci. I could feel pain nothing but pain. I coughed and it felt like my chest was ripping open.

I felt someone near me. I opened my eyes to the best I could my cap obscured my vision. I felt someone touch my side and I hear Kalifa speak.

"He's bleeding pretty badly. We need to do something before he bleeds to death."

I tried to say her name. I coughed and all I got out was. "Kali," when my voice gave way. I felt the world darken. I heard her scream my name and demanding that I don't die. I let the world fade. Dying didn't seem like a bad idea at the moment honestly.

However, I didn't die. No something strange had happened. I'm not sure how I got here I'm not even sure if I am still alive. I just know when I open my eyes back up I'm surrounded by the Straw Hat pirates.

Their captain grinned and said. "Hiya Square Nose guy."

Then I passed out again. Honestly if the others saw me now I'd probably would have been thrown out of CP9.


	2. Chapter 2

Humanity

Chapter one

Giraffe among the Pirates

Kaku slowly opened his eyes. He could feel pain coursing throw his body again. He took in his surroundings. He could tell he was in a bed. Seeing medical items lying around he concluded he was in an infirmary. Assuming that the day before must have been just some weird nightmare he slowly sat up thinking he would see a fellow assassin but instead he found a reindeer.

He blinked. "Huh?"

The reindeer looked at him. "Oh you're awake."

He frowned. The reindeer kind of looked like that monster that attacked him and Jyabura. "Umm, where am I?"

The reindeer got up and walked over to him. He was checking his vitals when he said. "The Thousand Sunny our ship."

The doctor took some notes. Kaku still felt a little light headed and said. "By our ship do you mean… the Straw Hat ship?"

He nodded. "Yup." He sat down the book. "You healed pretty fast but I guess that's normal for a Zoan. Just be careful not to pull out your stiches."

He blinked as the doctor left. He was just going to leave him here? Wasn't he their enemy? He slowly got out of bed and found his cap and jacket lying in a chair. He picked up both items feeling a lot better with them. It was silly of him to feel attachment to clothes but he didn't feel like himself without his cap. He had thought he had dreamed the whole thing with the pirates but... apparently he didn't. He rubbed his face trying to remember how he got on their ship in the first place.

He walked out of the infirmary. The doctor was waiting for him. He adjusted his cap and asked. "How did I get here?" He asked.

The doctor looked up at him. "You don't know? We just found you passed out on our deck yesterday morning."

Yesterday morning? He was out that long? He still felt a little light headed and rubbed his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah... so what is your name? I didn't catch it."

The reindeer smiled. "I'm Chopper; come on everyone is waiting."

He followed the little reindeer. Surely he must still be dreaming there was no way he could just wake up on their ship and everyone act so casually about it.

Standing around on the deck was the rest of the crew. The reindeer ran ahead of him and shouted at them about him being awake. The group turned and looked at him. He suddenly felt a little subconscious and hide his face under his cap.

The Captain walked up to him. He wore and indifferent expression. Kaku wondered for a moment if he was going to punch him in the face or what.

The young captain let out a sigh then said. "How in the world did you get here Square Nose?"

He blinked. Honestly he didn't know but if he told them that would they believe him? "I don't know."

"Oh… okay."

The navigator and the long nosed teen shouted at him about that being okay. Kaku had to think what were their names? Oh yeah, Nami and Usopp. He glanced at the group as the two were fussing at Luffy. He saw Nico Robin who stood with her arms crossed staring at him. Honestly he felt bad for how Spandam had treated her. Beside her was another teen wearing a black suite and smoking. He believed that one was the one that took on Jyabura. Thinking back on it he thought he heard them call him Sanji. He saw Franky as well. He wondered when that delinquent joined their crew. He noticed Zoro up against the railing of the ship with his arms crossed and staring at the ground.

After the two were done berating the captain who was busy laughing the whole time, Kaku smiled a little. Something about the kids' banter reminded him of being with his fellow assassins. On one of their better days that is. This was one of those moments he could take a step forward and take an opportunity or… or what he didn't have a lot of options. He had no idea where anyone else was or if they were even alive. His chest clinched at the thought of them being dead. An image came to mind of them lying in their own blood. He clinched his fists and looked down at the floor and spoke with little thought.

"I want to join your crew!"

Nami and Usopp were pulling on Luffy's face fussing at him and stopped mid-way through it. With a snap his face went back to normal. There was a pause and all of the pirates (well most) yelled.

"WHAT?"

He looked up at them cleared his throat. He fell to one knee and begged. "Please let me join! I have nowhere else to go. The others… I don't…" he clinched his fists again refusing to cry.

The captain looked serious as he walked over to the assassin. "You don't have to beg."

He looked up at him. "Huh?"

"I want you to join." He grinned. "Having a giraffe around will be cool!" He added grinning like an idiot.

He stood up. "Are you sure that's fine?" He asked looking back at the crew. He couldn't tell their expression immediately.

Luffy looked back. "Well what do you guys think?"

Kaku feared for a minute that they would say no. He worried he would be tossed in the ocean like he was nothing. He flinched when he heard improvement.

"Fine with me, maybe we can use him to make money as a giraffe." Said Nami with a laugh.

"Super! It couldn't hurt to have another shipwright." Said Franky

Sanji took a drag off his cigarette. "If Nami-swan is okay with it," he glanced over at Robin. "What about you?"

She smiled weakly. "I can appreciate his situation."

"As long as he listens to the Great Captain Usopp I'm fine with him." Said Usopp.

Zoro let out a humph and stepped away from the railing. "Well at least I have another punching bag."

"Don't hit him! He's still injured!" Yelled Chopper.

Luffy laughed. "It's settled then. Welcome to the crew." He smiled like a fool and nodded.

Kaku now kind of felt like a fish (or a giraffe) out of water as it was. The crew dispersed leaving him there on the deck not knowing what to do now; he looked around when he heard.

"Come on I'll show you around the ship."

He glanced over and saw Robin standing beside him. He felt a little nervous around her. He nodded and said. "Yes, thank you."

He followed her as she took him to the kitchen area. "This is the kitchen. On this crew we all take turns doing chores, such as washing the dishes or helping Sanji prepare food if needed."

Said cook was busy cutting up a potato and glanced up at them. "I hope you know you're way around a kitchen."

He nodded. "I know a little."

The blond sighed. "Good. When Robin is done showing you around come back here and help me." He said pointing at a huge pile of dishes.

His heart sunk some but it was better than being dead.

"Come on." Said Robin.

He followed her to another room. "This is the library." She said.

Nami was sitting at a desk writing something. She glanced up at them. "Oh hi."

Robin walked over to her with Kaku following her. "Nami works on our logs as well as she is working on her dream of mapping out the world."

He let out a whoa as he saw the decent sized map lying in front of the young woman. She still had a long ways to go but so far it was looking good.

"I thought that captains wrote the log?" he asked.

Nami frowned. "You met Luffy, right?" she said with a little eye roll.

Robin smiled. "We keep all of our logs and several books here. I think everyone on board has some book in the library."

He scanned the books seeing obvious ones like: medical books, cook books, shipwright books, and some about tools. Below that was the log books, each had a vol number and a name attached to the spin such as like Water 7.

"I haven't finished the one about Enies Lobby." She said.

He frowned. He wanted to put that behind him at the moment. He felt a hand on his shoulder realizing that Robin was urging him onward he followed her again. This time it was to an aquarium area.

"Wow." He said looking at the fish.

"The Captain, Usopp and Chopper caught most of those."

He could hear the captain laughing loudly in the distance.

"More than likely that is what they are doing now." She added with a laugh.

He wondered how someone who went through so much as her could be so cheerful.

She finished up the tour and took him back to the kitchen. "I'm going out on the deck to read." She looked to Sanji. "If you need me."

He realized that she was addressing Sanji with that. He frowned. What did he expect, Nico Robin to trust him?

He noticed he was alone with the cook who was busy making some tea. He walked over to the sink. He moved some dishes around and started running water.

He heard a "Here." And the sound of a tea cup being laid on the table. He turned to see the cook heading out the door carrying a tray of tea.

He figured it couldn't have been poised and picked it up and took a sip. It was way better than any tea Kalifa had made for them. He frowned. He didn't realize tea would make him so sentimental.

He started washing the dishes when the cook walked back in the kitchen. "The tea is good… thank you."

He took a drag off of his cigarette. "That's what I'm here for." He stirred whatever it was he was making.

He was making decent progress through the dishes. "It smells good what is it?"

Another pause then the cook said. "Curry."

Kaku realized he couldn't remember the last time he ate. His mouth watered and his stomach informed him of its presence. He frowned almost embarrassed.

"Stop what you're doing."

He looked at the cook. Had he done something wrong?

"I said stop."

He put down the dish as the cook pointed to a chair. For a moment he was a little worried as he sat down. No sooner than his butt hit the wooden chair there was food in front of him.

He blinked. "Oh uh… thanks."

The cook wiped off his hands with a towel and said. "Eat then finish the dishes." He turned back to the stove and mumbled something that sounded like. "Why couldn't it be that cute woman?"

Kaku soon realized that the cook was upset he wasn't Kalifa… he smiled a little hearing her say. _"That's sexual harassment."_ In his head. He ate some of the food. "The food is really good."

Sanji turned and smiled. "Good. Eat up and then finish the dishes. Dinner won't be ready for a couple of hours so eat up." He turned around and stirred the food adding. "No one should ever go hungry."

He finished up his meal then finished up the dishes he made small talk with Sanji asking where he learned how to cook and where he was from and so forth.

Afterwards the crew sat down for dinner and Kaku started washing the dishes when he heard.

"Land! I see an island up ahead!" called the swordsman from his up on the crow's nest.

Kaku dried his hands and like the rest of the crew headed to the deck. The captain was standing on the railing trying to see the island. Kaku wondered why he wasn't afraid of falling in since he was a Devil Fruit user and all.

The sun was starting to go down and the outline of the island could be made out in front the sun. All Kaku could see was tall mountain peaks on the island.

Luffy cheered. "Adventure!" He jumped up preparing to head to the island when Nami stopped him.

"Hold it Luffy. We should wait until day light."

He groaned. "But I want an adventure."

Kaku turned to him. "Nami-san is right Captain. We have no idea what is on that island or its terrain it could be dangerous at night."

The crew left the deck and headed their spate ways. They gathered various things to prepare to explore the island tomorrow. Kaku caught himself staring at the outline of the island… something about it seemed so familiar. He finally gave up on figuring it out and headed to bed.

Up in the crow's nest Zoro was doing another set of weightlifting. He was watching the sun set down behind the mountains. He briefly grinned thinking about any possible fights on the island as the ship got closer to it when he saw something. "Huh?" He put down the weight and stood up he saw what looked like an outline of a giraffe on the island. He wondered what the hell Kaku was doing and was going to shout at him he blinked then it went away. He frowned figuring it must have been his imagination.


	3. Chapter 3

Humanity

Chapter 2

The Island

Kaku was amazed by the sheer amount of excitement the captain expressed over exploring this island. Day break soon arrived and the captain had eaten his breakfast so fast that Kaku was about 90% sure the boy inhaled it.

The straw hatted captain was chanting adventure along with the doctor Chopper. Nami kept telling them to be quiet as the ship officially docked at the unknown island. There wasn't a village in sight however so the group had no idea how far too had to walk to find one if there was one.

The crew left the ship though Franky decided to stay behind to watch his precious Thousand Sunny and work on a recent project of his.

Kaku felt out of place following the others off of the ship. No sooner than their feet landed on the dock Luffy took off.

"Luffy wait damn it!" yelled Nami, as she, Usopp and Chopper chased after him.

Robin laughed. "Our captain sure does love an adventure."

Kaku was starting to question the sanity of the crew. How can anyone follow a captain that acted the way that kid does? Then he realized he was following him too. He let out a small sigh as he, Robin, Sanji, and Zoro followed the others.

Sanji looked around. "Doesn't look like anyone has been on this dock for a while."

Kaku looked around and note the dried rotted ropes and barrels holding disturbing stagnated water. He grimaced. "It does look like no one has been here in maybe years."

The cook took a drag off his cigarette and said. "I guess we aren't going to be buying any supplies here."

The group walked up a dirt path that the others had gone. The walked up a top of a hill and could see a village and the others standing there.

They caught up to them. "Something wrong?" asked Sanji

Nami gestured to the village. "There isn't anyone here."

Kaku took a quick survey of the situation. All the buildings looked old but… it looked like the place was abandoned in a hurry. Weeds were taking over a water fountain and the stone walk ways. Baskets were laying on the ground appearing that someone had left their shopping in a hurry. There were even old clothes still hanging on a clothes line.

The others wondered around the village. He was slow to follow he looked at the water fountain. The place seemed oddly familiar. He crossed his arms trying to remember if he had been here before when a sharp pain went through his head. He grimaced in pain and let out a hiss as the pain thumped in his brain.

"Are you okay?" asked Chopper who was at his side in an instant.

He nodded. "I'm good." No sooner than those words left his mouth he heard a scream.

"That sounded like Nami." Said Chopper.

The two of them ran to where the scream was. Nami looked surprised and was staring at something in the road. Sanji was by her side asking if she was okay.

Kaku looked around the two teens and saw it. There was a skeleton lying face down in the middle of the road. More than likely a victim of whatever happened here on this island.

"Wow a dead guy." Said Luffy who had just arrived.

Usopp flinched. "You think it's safe here? What if this place is haunted?"

Zoro placed his hands on his swords a protective reaction. He had no idea who or killed that person lying in the street and he wasn't going to take any chances on it not returning.

"Relax; who or whatever killed this person is probably long gone. Everything around here indicates this village has been abandoned for years." Kaku said looking at the others. "And if it was an animal the bones wouldn't be this neat." He walked over to the body.

Nami's eyes widened and Usopp yelled. "Don't what if he wakes up?"

Kaku let out a sigh as he lowered down to the remains. He had received some training on examining bodies a few years ago. It was a task he didn't have to do often usually that would be someone else's job like Blueno or Kalifa. He stood up and nudged the body with his foot.

"Looks like this person was shot from behind." He titled his head and pointed at a hole in the clothes. "It's hard to tell with just bones." He saw the bullet laying in the ribcage. He grimaced. He looked up and saw a house a few feet away from them. "Probably running to that house." Another sharp pain went through his head and he tried his best to ignore it.

He turned to the others and saw Robin heading towards them with her arms crossed. She looked at the bones and barely blinked. It was obvious that it wasn't the first time she had seen a skeleton before unlike the more innocent children on the crew.

"The village was called Kirin. I found a sign back there buried in some weeds."

Another sharp pain went through his head that time he could not block out a small cry.

Chopper ran up to him trying to ignore the bones. "Maybe you should go back to the ship. I think he might be pushing yourself to hard."

He waved him off. "I'm fine. I just have a headache that's all." He looked back at the house a few feet from them and another headache came on. His vision blackened for a second but cleared up.

He heard the others talking and Nami said. "You think that guy was guarding treasure in that house?"

"Who would just keep treasure in a house like that? It was probably his and he was running to his family." Said Usopp.

He had to admit curiosity was getting the better of him. If he could just hide the headaches long enough and check out the house maybe he could shake this uneasy feeling.

Luffy said something about checking out the house and Kaku was quick to agree.

Robin frowned at him before saying. "Maybe we can figure out what happened to the villagers."

The group made their way to the house. Kaku kept his pace slow as the headache refused to give in. He ran through his head what might have happened to this poor village. A buster call wasn't likely because the village wouldn't be standing anymore. Pirates were the most plausible answer but he couldn't imagine them leaving the village in decent shape either.

When they got to the house he heard Luffy say. "Whoa, someone really wanted in here."

The door was knocked out of the house and was in billions of pieces. Kaku looked at it seeing bullet sized holes in the splintered wood. "Looks like it got shot up too."

Robin bit her lip. "Whatever happened they were after this house. I looked around before I caught up with you guys and none of the other houses had their doors this damaged."

The two walked in behind the younger group. Nami was raiding a jewelry box as Usopp fused about her disturbing the ghosts.

She rolled her eyes. "Usopp don't be ridiculous." She said as a necklace fell out of her hand. It hit the ground and opened up. The sniper picked it up for her and looked at it. His eyes widened for a moment and he leaned over to the navigator and whispered something.

She grabbed the necklace and looked around the room and the two ran upstairs where Luffy and Chopper where.

Kaku scanned the room as Robin looked through some books on the shelf. Something about this place still felt off. Another head ache came on and he let out a yelp. He nearly went down on his knees when he felt someone grab his arm.

"Maybe you should go back to the ship." Said Sanji.

He looked up at him the young cook did look a little concerned. "I'm fine." He said in between breathes.

He heard Zoro let out a scoff as looked down at the assassin. Robin opened her mouth to say something as she had several books in her hands when they heard Nami yell.

"That's not funny Kaku!" followed by Luffy laughing.

Sanji looked down at Kaku and frowned. "He's with us!" He shouted when he heard a book hit the floor. He looked at Robin. "What?"

One of her phantom arms pointed at the door. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw a giraffe. "Holy shit!" it startled him more than anything.

Kaku laughed. "Oh neat a giraffe."

"Who says neat? How old are you anyways?" Sanji yelled as the assassin finally got back up on his feet.

Zoro laughed. "Hey look we found your family."

Kaku glared at him and Sanji had to suppress a smirk. That moss head annoyed him but he had to admit that it was a little funny.

"Giraffe's are cool and at least I don't have green hair." He responded as he headed to the stairs. He could hear the swordsman yell.

"What did you say? Get back here! You want me to kick your ass again you giraffe!"

He rolled his eyes as he made it to the second floor. There wasn't much to the house the second floor just seemed to be an old bed room. Chopper was by the window and the giraffe had its head in and appeared to be nodding. He raised an eyebrow and Nami said.

"Chopper is getting information from the giraffe."

"He can talk to animals?" he asked.

She nodded. "You can't? I figured that being a Zoan type devil fruit user you could."

"As far as I know I can't" He heard the others walk up the stairs.

Luffy laughed and pointed at the long neck creature and said. "Look Kaku we found your family!"

He narrowed his eyes and let out a sigh. "I happen to like giraffes." He said annoyance apparent in his voice as he walked over to the window.

Chopper was still talking to it. "Oh I see. Okay."

He reached out to it and petted it on the head. The creature raised an eyebrow at him then made a noise.

"He says he doesn't like being petted there." Said Chopper

"Oh," he withdrew his hand. "Tell him I said sorry."

The giraffe made a noise and shook its ears and exited the window and headed to a tree.

"He said it was okay." Said Chopper the reindeer looked back at the others and Nami asked.

"What did you learn?"

The doctor sighed. "Well…" he glanced around then said. "Apparently this place was attacked. The giraffe said he didn't know who it was but… He said that…"

_This place was once peaceful. I and my brethren lived among the people of the village in harmony. We were the pride of the village many people came and saw us but one day strangers arrived. The strangers attacked the village and came to this house they killed the person who lived here and took away their child. After that they took away the whole village. We survived by hiding in the forest nearby. We always felt bad for letting them get taken away._

Chopper nodded as he finished the giraffe's story. "I asked him if he knew who took the people and he said no."

The group fell silent for a few beats when Luffy asked.

"Do you think the villagers are still alive?"

Kaku frowned and harshly said. "Dead more than likely. If not they probably wish they were. They were probably taken to a prison or sold into slavery." He found himself almost hoping that the villagers were still alive himself but he knew that was unrealistic.

The group started heading back to the village. Kaku put some distance between himself and the others. The headache was returning and all he wanted to do now was lay down. He never felt so drained before not like this.

Little did he know as he was making his way back the rest was hanging back talking to one another.

Chopper sighed. "I didn't want to say it but… the giraffe said that he looked familiar."

Luffy looked up at the assassin who was nearly out of his sight now. "You think that's why he was acting weird."

The doctor looked thoughtful. "I don't know he said he had a headache…"

"Dr. isn't it possible for a person to repress their memories?" Robin asked. She had a book in her hand and was flipping through it.

"Hmm I guess it is possible but… you would think that he would remember something."

Usopp gulped. "You think the World Government could have done something to his memories?"

Chopper rubbed his chin in thought. "A devil fruit user that controls memories could that be possible?" he asked more to himself than anyone.

"I guess anything could be possible." Said Sanji who was looking at the book that Robin was flipping through.

"I still don't trust him." Said Zoro frowning.

"If he was lying I think one of us would have noticed." Said Usopp

"He _did_ trick everyone into thinking he was a normal guy at Water 7." Said Nami. She held the necklace in her hand and ran her fingers over it. "I found this though. I thought the giraffe was him so I didn't show it to you earlier." She showed it to the others.

"That does look like him." Said Sanji as he pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and flicked some ashes off of the end of it.

"So it looks like the evidence is suggesting he was the kid the giraffe was talking about." Said Nami

"Almost ironic considering." Said Sanji as he put his hands in his pockets.

"I still don't trust him." Said Zoro laying his hands on his swords he sighed trying to relax again. He looked at the captain not one to usually question him and said. "I can't believe you trust him either."

Luffy frowned. "I made a promise." He looked down at the ground. He recalled the day Kaku has dropped off on their ship. He had promised. Promised to look after him and get him as far away as he could. He let out a sigh. Some promise keeper he was, after all he unwittingly took the Zoan to the island he apparently came from. He clinched his fists no he was going to keep his promise all he had to do was keep him as far away from CP9 as he could shouldn't be that hard, right?

The straw hatted captain's thoughts were broken up when Robin said. "I think this book might be the reason this village was attacked."

He looked over at the dark haired woman as she continued. "Well maybe not just this book. I noticed in that house there was spaces for books and this one stood out." She ran her hand along the inside of the book and back over the pages. She pulled at the binding.

"Wow aren't you going to damage it if you do that?" asked Sanji

No sooner than he asked that she got the binding off of the front cover. Hidden in the binding was a note of some sort. She opened the paper. "Just as I thought, it's a code."

"The book has a code?" asked Usopp

"Why would someone hide something in a dumb old book?" asked Luffy

She shrugged. "Whatever it was it was worth losing their life over it." She looked at the code. It didn't make much sense at the moment but she would figure it out.


	4. Chapter 4

Humanity

Chapter 3

Surprises await! Fukuro makes an appearance

Kaku could say he was happy to be away from that island. A few days had passed and he was starting to get more comfortable around the crew. He would spend most of his day talking to Sanji while helping the cook out or chatting with Robin about whatever book she was reading. Though he was never really completely relaxed around her he did feel a little better talking to her. He realized it was stupid of him to act like just talking to the woman would be atonement for his sins against her. He occasionally chatted with the doctor and the captain. The others he noticed kept their distance from him. He tried repeatedly to befriend the navigator and the sniper. Although Nami would be polite and talk to him he soon noticed that she acted guarded around him. He couldn't blame her or any of them for the way they acted if he was in their position he would do the same thing.

Something he had noticed much to his horror since they left that island is an increase in nightmares. To be honest to say he slept soundly after all he done in his life would be a lie. Hell most of them in CP9 would usually go for long periods of time with sleepless nights. Thinking back on it he was probably the worst out of all them. Usually he wouldn't remember his dreams but now… they were so real.

He's last one was so vivid he wasn't sure he didn't live through it. It didn't make much sense to him though. He leaned back in a chair he was out on the deck getting some sun and trying to clear his mind. He closed his eyes letting the world around him fade.

The dream danced in front of his eyes.

_ Kalifa was standing beside him screaming at him not to die. There was a flash and he was back at Water 7. He felt his back hit something hard as Rob Lucci had pushed him into a pile of wood._

_ "Don't you dare talk like that again!"_

_ Another flash and he felt his body being lifted up. "Take him! We can't keep him here! He's going to die!"_

_ Another flash and he was being pulled away from someone. He reached out and screamed. "Dad no!"_

He nearly jumped out his skin when someone shook him. He flung his arm and was getting ready to use finger pistol.

"Kaku?"

He blinked he realized he was panting and soon the world came into focus. He almost attacked Robin. One of her phantom arms was holding his wrist and she looked worried. He looked at her. "Sorry." He relaxed his body and she let go. He worried that if he wasn't careful the swordsman might finish the work he started back on Enies Lobby.

"You okay? You looked like you were having a nightmare."

He let out a sigh and nodded. "I'm good." He got up from the chair suddenly wanting a drink. "I'm fine." He said more to himself than her.

She looked worried. "If you want to talk I'm here."

He looked away. "I good thank you though." He pulled the cap over his eyes more ashamed to look at her than anything. "I shouldn't sleep outside like that. I'm going to get sunburned." He said with a forced laugh and took off before she could ask more questions.

He headed to the kitchen were Sanji was in the middle of making dinner. The cook looked up at him. "Dinner won't be ready for a while. Are you okay you look pale?"

He sat down and put his head in his hands. "Nightmare," he looked through his fingers and heard the cook sit down a cup of tea beside him. He heard him pull up a chair and sat down. "I almost attacked Robin." He felt ashamed just saying it out loud. His damn assassins training, looking back on it he was lucky he hadn't hurt one of them by now.

The cook lit a smoke and leaned back in his chair. "You want to talk about it?"

A few days before he had almost attack Usopp when he woke him up for night watch. Since then he's been on thin ice with some of the crew. Every time he walked past Zoro he was sure the man would kill him. Sanji had been a firsthand witness to the incident involving Usopp and thankfully Chopper gave them a lesson on not startling him. He rubbed his eyes.

"I guess so but I don't remember it. All I see is brief images… this time it was Kalifa screaming about me dying… Lucci attacking me at Water 7, someone saying that I was going to die I didn't see who that was and the last… I think I was screaming for my dad. She woke up about that time."

Sanji studied him for a minute as he drank his tea. Having him around was dangerous but he felt bad for the guy. He knew what one of those dreams was from. He swallowed wanting to tell him what it was from but what was the point. The captain and Franky told Paulie they wouldn't tell him about it unless his life depended on it. Something about cutting off all ties with them something he couldn't understand.

"I don't even remember Lucci attacking me before though but it seemed so real." He drank his tea. "If he did I wouldn't be alive to talk about it."

Sanji put out the smoke he was grateful that his smoking didn't seem to bother the agent. "Dreams are weird sometimes they don't mean a thing at all." He said as he got up. He picked up his tea cup.

"Chopper said they are memory consolidation." He frowned.

He looked back at him. "Well I'm pretty sure they still don't mean much. I can't tell you how many weird ones I had and I know they never happened. I have never been stripped in battle by a bunch of woman and me and Nami," He coughed. "Uhh never mind, just don't worry about it."

He got up and handed him the tea cup. "Thank you. Hopefully it is nothing. Do you want me to wash the cup?"

He shook his head and the two heard the captain yell that he saw another island. At least they found this one during the day.

Kaku headed back to the boys room to get his jacket. He hadn't been wearing it as much and just sticking with a black shirt. He picked up the jacket it was full of holes and torn. He frowned. He needed to get some new clothes that's for sure. He felt weight in the pockets something was in them. He reached in it. He hadn't bothered with it since he got here since it was clear and warm most days so he didn't notice there was anything in the pockets. He grasped something and pulled it out. It was a transponder snail. "Oh," he said and went to sit it on his cot. It might come in handy so he didn't want to lose it. Suddenly it sprung to life. He raised an eyebrow, who would have his frequency?

The snail crackled and started moving its mouth. "Hello? Anyone out there?"

That voice! It sounded like Fukuro. He clicked it on and said. "I read you Fukuro."

There was a pause. "Kaku, is it really you, chapapa?"

"Yeah it's me. It's good to hear from you too." He heard the older man cheer.

"I'm so glad you're not dead. I thought that… Where are you at, chapapa?"

He took a moment to tell him about his being with the pirates. "So what about you? What happened to everyone else?"

He sighed. "We all separated chapapa; I've been checking our transponders in case someone else came nearby…"

"Separated? Why? What is going on?" He could hear Fukuro moving stuff around.

"Can't say, chapapa… Are you docking at here?"

By here he assumed he meant the island. "Yes we are."

"Met me at Sea Ocean's bar at five." With a final chapapa the line clicked off.

He stared at the snail wondering if the large man was being watched or something. He heard a noise by the door. He turned fast to see what looked like Usopp running off. Crap! Last thing he needed was him blabbing to the others. He sat down the snail and headed out.

He didn't see Usopp. He walked across the deck and realized they had docked. He looked over at Zoro who was doing one of his workouts.

"Did everyone leave already?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

The swordsman barely said two words to anyone so anytime he spoke to him he was surprised. He frowned. If he didn't get to Usopp in time what would happen.

He headed off the ship. He still needed new clothes. He scanned the dock various travelers were walking around talking and laughing it was a busy dock. He didn't see any of the pirates.

He started towards the down town of the village. Scanning the shops he spotted the place that Fukuro wanted to meet at. He spotted a clothes shop and walked in with a sigh. He hated buying clothes sometimes. He heard a woman's voice and looked to see Nami talking to the woman behind the counter.

She was with Sanji who was already holding some bags. She could give Kalifa a run for her money on clothes shopping then. The navigator looked at him. "Oh hey there Kaku." She said. He could almost hear her fake sincerity this time. She wasn't bothering to hide her disdain with him.

He walked over to her. "Hello Nami-san." He looked over at Sanji. "I see she put you to work already."

He smiled. "Anything for my Nami-swan." He gushed.

"Where are the others?" he asked casually.

"Robin went to find a book store. I think Chopper and Franky went with her. Luffy and Usopp went to find something to eat."

So the sniper was with the captain. He was too late. He hopped that maybe he could reason with him to keep it a secret. Last thing he needed was more distrust. He spotted some men's shirts in the bags.

"What all did you buy?"

Nami laughed. "I picked up some things for the other guys. I swear Sanji-kun is the only one that knows how to change clothes sometimes."

"Kind of funny I came here looking for some new clothes." He said. As Sanji dug through the bag mumbling something about her only getting him three shirts.

She looked at his clothes. "Yeah I guess you do need a new jacket." She reached in her bag and handed him some money. "Here, you don't have any money do you?"

He couldn't believe he didn't realize he needed money. He could have slapped himself. He took the money. "Thank you."

She smiled evilly. "You owe me one."

He felt the coldness in her words. The young woman would have been a good agent if she wasn't a pirate. He counted the money at least he could buy something and afford at least one drink later… maybe.

Nami looked him over. "Please buy something other than black." She scanned the clothes and saw something. "Try this on." She dragged him over to the clothes.

He looked at Sanji. "Help." He mouthed. The cook just smiled and sat down with the bags.

The young woman pulled out a red jacket and looked at him. "Maybe you should go for another style too."

It hit him when she handed him the jacket. She almost reminded him of Kalifa. He blinked as she was still holding the jacket out to him.

"Umm, red isn't really my color."

She gave him a nasty look. "No black." She dug through the rack and Sanji called from his seat. "Nami-swan I think he knows how to dress himself."

She shot an insult at him as Kaku wondered over to another clothes rack. He wasn't in the mood to be her personal doll. He saw a simple black jacket and another high collared shirt that went with it.

Before he could make it to the register in one piece she shoved a blue jacket under his face. Oddly enough it looked like the one he wore at Water 7.

"Blue is a better color on you then black."

The irony wasn't lost on either one of them. He took the clothes and grabbed some blue jeans. Short of the white cap it was almost the same thing he wore back then. He still bought the black clothes. He took them to the register and tossed a red cap on top of all of it. Maybe he would try some red in his life. Of course that would be a decision he regretted later after he heard to total of the bill.

The assassin almost hit the floor from shock. "What?" He demanded as the casher repeated the total.

"Didn't you know? This is a high end retail shop." Said Nami with a shrug.

Sanji laughed. Kaku should have known. Neither one of them looked like they wore high end clothes. He sighed handing the casher all of his money. So much for that drink. He took his bags and turned to the other two.

"So what are you guys going to do?"

Sanji shrugged. "I'm dropping these off and going to get some groceries and smokes."

Nami looked up at the clock in the shop. "I'm going to meet up with Robin for a while. It'll be nice for us two ladies to get away from all the maleness for a while." She added with a laugh. She handed Sanji the rest of her bags and left.

Without thinking Kaku asked. "Why do you let her treat you like that?"

He shrugged. "I'm a gentleman."

He frowned. So was he put he wouldn't try as hard as he did to impress this woman as he did. He looked at the clock it was almost time to meet Fukuro.

Sanji held out a hand. "I'll take your stuff back to the ship."

"Oh uh thanks." He took out his new black jacket and put it on and placed the old one down in the bag.

Sanji left with barely a word after that. Kaku walked out of the clothes shop and looked back at it. Thinking back he remembered Kalifa doing something like that to him too. He wondered what was with women's obsession with dressing men they knew.

He walked into the bar and looked around. He spotted Fukuro sitting in the back drinking a soda. He walked over to him and sat down.

"I need answers."

He looked at him and unzipped his mouth. "Chapapa, impatient today aren't you Kaku?" He looked around. "Do they know?"

"The long nose guy heard me I think. I didn't get a chance to settle it…" no sooner than those words left his mouth he spotted the sniper and the captain walk in. Well he must have told him. He made eye contact with Luffy who acted like he didn't know him. "They know. They just saw us."

Fukuro looked around. "It'll be fine chapapa. World Government is what we need to worry about now chapapa. Spandam wants us dead for our failure."

He raised an eyebrow. He wasn't surprised about that. "Figured as much."

"That's why we separated. We are going to…" he looked around and leaned in closer to him and whispered. "We went our separate ways for protection chapapa."

"Where are the others?" he was worried that they might be dead.

As if he read his mind. "Everyone is alive but I don't know about Lucci, chapapa. Blueno took him to a doctor personally."

"And left me to die." His voice raised some. He knew better but he was still a little mad about it.

The zipper mouthed man shook his head. "No chapa. Blueno took you to Water 7 so you could get help chapapa."

He frowned. "Then how did I get on the ship?"

He shrugged and drank some of his drink.

This was starting to annoy him. He sighed and leaned back. "So can you tell me anything about a village called Kirin?"

"Kirin?" He nearly choked on his drink. "How did you hear about that?"

"We went there a couple of days ago. It seemed so strange. I was wondering if maybe… CP9 had something to do with it." Because he was a junior agent a lot longer than the others he knew little about some of the earlier events.

Fukuro looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head. He jumped up suddenly. "I can't tell you! No chapapa!"

He went to speak again but the bigger man took off. He shouted something about keeping in touch with him as he left the bar. Kaku was defiantly suspicious. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. He heard a noise and looked to see Luffy sitting there with Usopp.

"So you found zipper mouth… aren't you going with him?"

He thought about it. There was no point to it. They separated for their own safety, or at least that was what he was told. "No point to it. I like your guys company better than his anyways." Fukuro was a mixed bag for him. He sometimes annoyed him but he did feel a little better knowing the annoyance was alive. He wondered where the others where. His heart sank when he realized he was almost starting to miss them.

Luffy smiled. "Good glad to hear it, Kaku." The captain laughed as he got up and left with Usopp.

Kaku adjust his cap again then realized it was the first time the captain called him by his name. He got up from his chair. There was no point in staying after all he had no money to buy drinks.

He started heading back to the ship when another powerful headache hit him. He was getting tired of this. His vision blurred for a moment he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes waiting for it to pass.

This time his mind provided him with more torture.

_"You killed him!" Jyabura screamed._

_ "Kaku, no!" yelled Kalifa_

_ "You went too far this time." Said Blueno_

_ "Yoyoi, you have given him too much."_

_ "You keep this up and he'll forgot his training." Said Lucci._

_ Spandam yelled. "What do you guys know? I know I gave him the right dose. What do you care any ways? You aren't people just tools! He's just another tool in the shed as far as I'm concerned!"_

He felt someone touch his shoulder. This time he made a point not to lash out again. He looked up to see Franky. The soda drinking cyborg hadn't had much to do with him since his arrival.

"You okay giraffe-bro?"

He nodded. "Yeah just thinking." He felt a slight drizzle begin. He was glad he got a new jacket.

Franky looked up at the sky. "Usopp-bro was right. Sis is really good at predicating the weather." He looked over at him. He felt bad for him. He didn't know what to say or do for him. He cursed under his breath. He couldn't believe he let Paulie talk him into taking him in. It wasn't like he could just leave him with the Family the people of Water 7 would probably want to kill him. He was sure the whole town knew the truth about what had happened. Thinking back on it he remembered the flustered Paulie standing over the bleeding Kaku shouting about needing help. Franky grimaced it wasn't easy he had no use for the guy before he found out he was CP9 but…

Kaku got away from the wall. "I'm heading back to the ship."

Franky looked at him and said. "Hey uh bro," he started. The agent looked back at him. Franky remembered he wasn't supposed to tell him what happened he looked away. "I'll go with you." The cyborg followed behind the young man thinking. He wanted to tell him he did but how? When Blueno handed him over to Paulie… He shivered recalling how badly hurt he was and being told to give him his freedom. Freedom from what CP9?

They were almost back to the ship. Franky went to speak again but lost his nerve. How was he supposed to tell him something he didn't understand himself? They boarded the ship and the agent headed to the kitchen to help Sanji most likely. Franky headed to his work area. He moved some notes around and saw a folded up note. He flinched. He and the others hadn't decided when to give that note to Kaku yet. He picked up. His name was written in pretty letters across the back. He looked around tempted to read it. What if it was instructions to kill them? They were putting a lot of faith in a guy they knew could hide his true face with ease.

He opened up the letter with a "Why the hell not?"

_Dear Kaku,_

_ I apologize for doing this to you but it is for your safety. Spandam wants us dead. You were too injured to make it to the next town we figured you would be better off in the place that gave you true happiness. _

The letter wasn't signed but judging by the neat hand writing it was written by a woman. Then again one of the guys could have nice hand writing what did he know? He folded it up. Unless it was coded it defiantly wasn't orders. He sat the note down and remembered hearing the agent's words.

"Keep him safe."

Safe from what exactly? He found it hard to believe that Spandam would be able to take them out. He's back was broken as far as Franky knew. He sighed when there was a knock at his door.

"Yo?" he said as the door opened a crack.

"Dinner is ready." Said Robin

"Super." He walked over to her. "Hey did you ever figure out that book?"

She looked concerned. "Almost…"

He sighed. "I think we are in over our heads."

She looked at him as he walked past her. "Would you rather he died back at Water 7?"

She said it so coldly that Franky could barely believe it came from her. "No I…" he looked down and did a slow inhale and said. "No deserves to die like that."

She nodded as she followed him to the dining area. The others had long ago dug into their food. She noticed Franky glance over at Kaku then let out a small curse word before sitting down. She sat down herself. What she was beginning to wonder is why did those people think leaving him there would keep him safe? She picked at her food when suddenly.

"Are you okay Robin?"

She looked up at Kaku and smiled. "I'm fine thank you."

She looked back at her plate. She started feeling uneasy. She tried to shake it off surely it was in her head, right?


	5. Chapter 5

Humanity

Chapter 4

Secrets

Kaku was starting to get tired of the way the pirates were treating him now. Every time he walked in the room they would stop talking or stare at him. He was wondering if it was his imagination or what. He headed into the kitchen Sanji was one of the few people who didn't act like that. He and Robin but the archeologist was spending most of her time in a book.

He sat down at the table and let out a sigh. A cup of tea appeared before him it was becoming a pattern with the two of them now. He had been on the ship about a month and a half now. He was surprised how close he and Sanji had become. Through him he had learned about his dream and the dreams of the other crew members. He supposed that the kids needed a dream to keep them going. He couldn't think of a time he had ever felt like that. He sipped his tea as the cook sat down.

He had learned about this young man wanting to find the All Blue and his love for Nami which sometimes he liked to pick on him about from time to time. The cook put out his cigarette and said. "Anymore nightmares?"

His nightmares had been decreasing some and at least he didn't attack people who woke him up. "Not that I can remember." He sipped the tea.

The cook smirked. "You were talking in your sleep." He laughed.

He frowned he hoped that he didn't say any government secrets or else he would have to zipper his mouth like Fukuro. "What did I say?" He felt a blush creep up on his face.

"Something about that Kalifa woman."

He looked down at his cup of tea. "It was probably…" He looked up at him. "Not what you think honestly. I keep having these strange dreams and… in nearly everyone one of them she is yelling about me dying."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

He frowned. "It's okay… she was a good friend." He didn't feel self-confident he knew that the cook was a friend and didn't mind opening up to him. It almost reminded him of being around Paulie and the others. At least Sanji treated him like… a human not like someone that could be thrown away.

Sanji decided to change the subject and got some items out of the fridge. "You keep hanging around here and I'm going to teach you how to cook."

He finished his tea. "I have a general idea about cooking… kind of."

He looked back at them. "So who did most of the cooking?"

"We had cooks at Enies Lobby so usually we didn't cook for ourselves." He stretched and looked thoughtful. "A couple of us cooked we took turns. Some were better at something's than others. Kumadori always made sure we ate healthy, Jyabura usually caught what we ate if we weren't at a village, and Lucci was the best cook though."

Sanji raised an eyebrow. Thinking about the violent agent being a good cook surprised him. "Better than me?"

"Nah, he was better than Kalifa. The only way she could cook is if she ordered it off of a menu."

Sanji laughed he wasn't surprised by that the woman couldn't even make a cup of tea.

"Blueno was good at mixing drinks. That's how he got a job at the bar. Fukuro was just good at eating."

"What about you then?"

There was a pause. "I can make toast."

Sanji chuckled. He realized that was the most he had ever said to him about the other agents. He wondered why it took him so long to talk about them. He had noticed that slowly over time the former agent was slowly softening up some. He was starting to joke around with them and Nami had commented he was more like he was when they met him at Water 7. Sanji sat down the ingredients and looked over his shoulder at him. "Can you peel carrots?"

He laughed. "I think so." He got the peeler and started taking care of the carrots.

There was a pause between them before Sanji finally asked. "How come you don't talk about them that often?"

He flinched. This was almost becoming shameful now. What sort of assassin flinches? As a matter of fact what sort of assassin was having trouble blocking out the feeling of guilt and remorse. He let out a sigh and Sanji said.

"If you don't want to talk about it I understand."

He shook his head. "I've been having a hard time… processing it all… I can't remember much after the fight with Zoro… I just wonder why did they…" He looked away and sat down the peeler. "They were kind of like my family from what I remember… It's weird I'm suddenly remembering little things about the past that… I never did remember."

He raised an eyebrow. It really sounded like Chopper was right. He recalled a few days ago that Chopper was starting to think that Kaku was being drugged or something and that was why he was having gaps in memory. He light a cigarette trying to maintain his poker face. He thought back on it.

_The Straw Hat pirates met up in the library after they had left the last island. They made sure that Kaku was sound asleep and Sanji wasn't so sure that Chopper didn't drug him to make sure the man slept. Zoro stood by the door and listened incase Kaku got up in the middle of the meeting. _

_ Chopper looked around the room. "Okay… I wanted to be sure everyone knew this…" He picked up a book. "After looking through the evidence, I think that Kaku was being drugged by this plant." He opened the book and pointed at a picture of the flower. "This plant when ground down can be used to cause difficulties with remembering things."_

_ "So it blocks memories?" asked Nami_

_ He nodded. "From what I have heard and what we saw it's the only thing that makes sense. His bad dreams are the memories that were blocked coming back."_

_ "How do they block the right ones then?" asked Usopp._

_ He shook his head. "I have no idea. It might just be dumb luck. At best we can do is keep an eye on him. We have no idea if the drug didn't alter his personality any. He could be even more dangerous or violent than what we think."_

_ Robin looked at the book. "Could they be using this for mind control?"_

_ "They could… maybe that's how they get the CP9 agents trained." _

_ "How awful?" said Nami covering her mouth._

_ "Mind control…" said Zoro thinking. He moved away from the door. "It might explain it… after I beat him he expressed disappointment over not being able to get back."_

_ They were all silent until. "Well we do know one thing… We promised we would look after him and that's what we'll do." Said Luffy_

_ They all looked at each other and nodded. That was all they could do. They couldn't reverse what had been done to him and for all they knew what happened to him was far worse than anything they had dealt with before._

Drugged? Sanji still had problems believing that CP9 would drug one of their own. After all they decided to send him to Water 7 for safety. But he was starting to see that he might have been drugged. Slowly everyday Kaku would mention something new and then realize he had no idea where it came from. Sanji sighed studying the other man. He pitied him he wanted to do more for him.

Kaku frowned. "I keep remembering the weirdest things." He sat down the peeler. Another major headache hit him. He grabbed his head and groaned in pain.

"You okay." He put his hand on his shoulder. These attacks were really scaring him. What if there was something seriously wrong with him? He pushed those thoughts in the back of his mind.

"I'm okay." Mumbled the former agent.

"I think you should let Chopper check you out."

He shook his head. "I'm fine."

He pointed at the door. "Go see Chopper. If he gives you a clean bill a health you can come back and help." He said pushing him out of the door.

The former agent adjusted his cap out of habit. He sighed maybe he should just let Chopper check him out. He headed towards the doctor's office when another headache hit him. He almost screamed out that time. He felt dizzy and fell down on one knee.

He felt someone grab his arm. "Are you okay?"

He looked up his vision was blurring he barely made out what looked like Robin. He heard another voice ask if he was okay. He couldn't get himself to speak. Was he dying?

The other person lifted him up. He blinked a few times vision clearing long enough to see Franky and Zoro was holding him up. Robin looked scared. He heard another voice scream for Chopper it must have been Nami. He felt the world get dark. Seeing them around him he almost felt comforted at least someone cared.

A vision came before his eyes. Not again. He could see his fellow CP9 agents in front of him.

_He was back at Water 7. He was standing there with Lucci, Kalifa, and Blueno. He crossed his arms and looked over at them._

_ "I don't want to do this."_

_ He could feel the others looking at him. Lucci sighed as he looked back at the junior agent. "Again with this, Kaku?"_

_ Blueno looked down at him. "Kaku, I understand how you feel but…"_

_ He looked up at the taller man. "No you don't!" He clinched his fists. "This is my… dream job… my dream life. I always wanted to be a shipwright since I was a child. I…" He looked away. "I can't do this. I can't do this to them."_

_ "It's our job." Stated Lucci flatly glaring at him._

_ "They are my friends! Don't they mean anything to you?"_

_ "I have no friends, Kaku."_

_ He gasped. "We have been here for three years don't you… care?"_

_ "We are assassins Kaku! We have a job to do. We don't have time for you to be sentimental!" He swung his arm around nearly striking the younger man. He growled nearly going into leopard form._

_ "Lucci." Said Blueno trying to stop the other agent._

_ Kalifa tensed up and moved closer to Kaku as if she could protect him. She whispered in his ear. "Stop it."_

_ He looked over at her then back at Lucci. "I don't want to do this! I quite! You can't stop me! I have my own life I'm not a weapon! I'm a human being!" _

_ He barely registered what happened Lucci moved so fast. No amount of training could prepare him for an attack from the senior agent. _

_ Lucci grabbed the younger man by the throat and lifted him up off the ground. "Do you want to die Kaku?"_

_ Kalifa screamed. "Kaku!"_

_ Lucci glared at her but ignored her. "The only way you can get out of this mission is death! Just like the rest of us! Death is our only option!" He tightened his grip._

_ "Stop it! You'll kill him!" Kalifa screamed._

_ "This has gone far enough Lucci." Said Blueno._

_ The leopard man dropped him. He hit the ground with a thud and gasped for air. Kalifa ran over to him and checked him out._

_ "Lucci you," Blueno started but the other agent ignored him and said._

_ "Drug him." He said flatly to Blueno._

_ He blinked. "I thought you didn't want to do that anymore."_

_ He looked down at Kaku. "Apparently it's the only way."_

Kaku screamed when he woke up. "No!" He bolted up in the bed someone grabbed his arm.

"It's okay Kaku. You're among friends now." Said Robin in a soothing voice.

His mind felt fuzzy as he breathed heavy for a little bit. She kept talking to him trying to calm him down. He scanned the room and saw the others gathering around. He coughed everything suddenly clicked in his mind and without realizing it he said.

"They drugged me." He rubbed his eyes fighting back tears. He cried he couldn't stop it. Strange memories things he had never known flooded his mind bits and pieces most didn't make sense. He felt her take his hand. He looked up at the older woman choking back a sob and said. "They were drugging me. I thought they were my family." He sobbed louder. He never cried so hard in his life.

Robin held his hand. She looked at the others feeling worried for the younger man. "Kaku they," she didn't know what to say.

Franky walked closer to the side of the bed. Chopper was checking him out trying to figure out if there was any long term damage from the incident.

Kaku kept crying he couldn't stop and all he said was. "I thought they were family."

The cyborg spoke. "Hey Mountain Monkey."

Robin glared at the blue haired cyborg. She was worried that Franky would upset the emotionally broken man.

The long nosed man looked up at the cyborg. Silent but his face said 'what?' Franky pushed a note in his face and said. "Here…"

"Franky what is this?" asked Kaku.

The cyborg took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that we held this back from you." He could feel the eyes of the others on him. "Kaku, that note was found on you," Kaku was looking over it while Franky kept talking. "When I was working on the Sunny… I… Blueno appeared and handed you over to Paulie. He told me…" He paused thinking back seeing other shipwright screaming for help holding his broken and bloodied friend. He coughed and continued. "Paulie told me that he asked him to keep you safe to give you freedom."

He folded the note up and looked up at the cyborg. His brown eyes were wide and full of tears again. He was fighting back tears and starting to lose.

"He took you to our ship. He was worried that the people of Water 7 might revolt and k-kill you… Kaku, I don't know the other agents… I barely know you… I only know from what I have seen in the last few weeks and at Enies Lobby." He clinched his fists. "I can understand why you are upset but… they must still care about you. Why else would they work so hard to get you to Water 7?"

Kaku stared at the note then back up at Franky. "Thank you for telling me and giving me this."

The blue haired cyborg nodded. "It was found on you. It belongs to you I had no right to keep it from you." He headed to the door. "I'm still sorry about what happened." He left the room.

He looked over the note again. "Kalifa wrote this." He folded it up and put it in his pocket. Robin took his hand again. "I guess they did care." He said with a weak smile. He was getting ready to get out of the bed when Chopper stopped him.

"I did research on what I think you were being drugged with. You need to lay down for a while. The drug takes a while to work out of your system. You probably got drugged back at Water 7 before you left." He checked his vitals. "You're weak now. It will take some time but… your memories should start coming back completely. It was start with recent things all the way too when you first got drugged."

He frowned. "That sounds like it could take some time."

He nodded. "Sadly there is a high chance you may never regain all of your memories. But you need you're rest. You've been pushing yourself too hard."

"I'll be fine I'll just…"

"No! I said rest."

His eyes widened at him. "Doctor?"

He growled. "Sorry, I'm tired of seeing you hurt. I am your treating doctor and I order you to stay in bed to rest. Don't work too hard and DO NOT try to remember anything from the past actively. You could have an aneurism if you are not careful."

"Okay doctor I get it. I'll stay in bed like a good boy." He added with a little wink hoping to calm down the reindeer.

"I want you here to monitor you okay?"

He nodded. "Fine I'll stay."

Sometime had passed, Kaku remained in bed despite not caring for the idea to remain in bed, several times different crew members would stop by and keep him company.

Chopper would stop by and check on how he was doing. Eventually the little reindeer opened up and began telling him about his life on Drum Island and about how he ended up the way he is and his dream. Very slowly the reindeer was starting to warm up to Kaku.

Usopp came by a few times. He gave him some material to work on a model ship after he found out from Sanji that Kaku liked making models. He started telling him some of his outlandish stories to pass the time. Eventually he opened up about their old ship the Going Merry.

Usopp had just finished telling him about how they beat Kuro and got the ship. Although the sniper king put his own spin on it that Kaku knew wasn't true.

"Can I ask you a question?" Asked the former agent.

"Yeah sure." He responded nervously.

"Why were so hell bent on keeping that ship after you had been told it would never sail?"

The sniper sighed. "Because The Merry had taken us on so many adventures together… I think the biggest reason was because… it was something that reminded me of Kaya." He crossed his arms and sighed. Sometimes the sniper got homesick especially when it came to Kaya.

He frowned. "I'm sorry for… you know…" He didn't know what to say recalling that he sent the ship to its death.

He smiled. "You know you kind of helped us."

"Huh?"

"Because you sent The Merry out she was able to save us from Enies Lobby."

Kaku could honestly say he was glad to clear that up between the two. He could tell that Usopp harbored harsh feelings towards him but he noticed that feeling decrease after they got to talking to each other.

Nami came by a few times bringing him old log books so he could read about the crew's past. The two would talk about some of the more colorful stories of the crew and laugh about it. He noted how little she wanted to talk about what happened at her island. That day she just brought the log with a sigh handed it to him and ran out of the room. He didn't need to talk to her about it he could tell it was a touchy subject with her.

Sanji would stop by every morning bringing him his morning cup of tea and something to eat from time to time. He would sit and talk with him before he would leave to start whatever meal that needed to be started. Kaku was grateful that the cook would bring by a cup of tea. He hadn't realized how much he was getting hooked on having tea every morning.

Franky would come by and talk to him about the ship. Sometimes he would show off his ideas for new inventions or things to do with the ship and get his opinion on it. Franky usually wouldn't stay long but Kaku was starting to think it was because the cyborg couldn't sit still.

Robin of course would visit as well. Sometimes she would bring him a novel to read. He enjoyed her company she was a lot more calm and quiet than the other crewmembers.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

She shrugged. "Why not? I know what it's like to be new on this crew it can be interesting…" she said with a smile.

He sighed. "You know what I meant."

She stood up from her chair. "If you asking about _that_ you should know I do not hold it against you. You were just doing your job after all." She said with a smile. She picked up her book. "I do enjoy talking to you. It's nice to have another 'adult' on the crew." She added with a wink.

He blushed a little then asked as she was leaving. "Was it worth it?"

She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Is reading the Poneglyphs worth it?"

She looked down. "Knowing where we as people came from is important. I know not everyone cares about history as much as I do." She looked at her hands. "This world is a fascinating place." She looked back at him. "Despite what you might have been told prior to my capture I have no interest in reviving the ancient weapons."

"I didn't think you did." He smiled a little. "I appreciate your companionship."

She nodded. "No problem."

The captain came by from time to time. Sometimes he would bring cards so they could play.

"Usopp taught me how to play this… not sure if I remember how though." Luffy would often say. Oddly enough they never made it through a whole game as the captain would get distracted or forget the rules.

Finally one day the rubber boy asked him. "Hey Kaku, do you have a dream?"

"Do I have a dream? No not really? I never gave my future much of thought at CP9." He frowned. "I figured that I would die on duty so plans for the future didn't mean anything to me."

The rubber teen frowned. "But you have to have some kind of dream. What did you want to be when you were younger?" after the question left this mouth he realized that Chopper told him not to ask him questions like that. "Oh crap I forgot."

He shook his head. "I told you captain. I have never had a dream."

Luffy looked at the model ship that he was working on before he came in. "Sanji said you told him you wanted to be a shipwright."

He nodded. "I like ships. They are almost as cool as giraffes." He said with a laugh.

Luffy looked at the little ship in the bottle. It looked almost like the Merry. "But everybody needs a dream."

He sighed. "I'm an adult captain. I spent my life… never mind. I just don't see a point in something like that."

The straw hatted teen frowned. "That's no way to be." He picked up the model. "You're pretty good at this. No wonder Ice-pops gave you a job." He said with a laugh. "Maybe you can start your own company."

He laughed. Apparently the captain was determined to force a dream on him. "Captain I'll think about it. If I come up with a dream I'll let you know."

Luffy gave one of his signature laughs and sat the model back down. "Oh by the way you can call me Luffy." He laughed again. "That is my name after all." He picked up the cards. "I think you would feel better if you had a dream." He grinned really big. "I want to be King of the Pirates!"

Sometimes the childish behavior of the captain amazed and confused him. Yet here he was preparing to follow this teen around and come up with a dream of his own. How childish indeed. The captain smiled again as he tried to get the cards back in the box.

"Stupid cards." He mumbled as he fumbled with them. He managed to get them half in the box and he jumped up from his chair. "I keep forgetting you need to rest." He headed to the door and left with barely a goodbye.

Kaku yawned not noticing how tired he was. He wondered briefly if having a dream would change anything. Would having a goal to strive to really change his life.

The most surprising thing of all was when Zoro stopped by. Other than their little spat on Kirin Island the green haired swordsman barely spoke to him. Kaku of course noted and was told by Nami a few times that Zoro barely spoke to anyone.

The swordsman walked into the room and looked at him. He didn't say a word to him when he first sat down. He sighed and closed his eyes before he finally said. "When you get out of here do you want to have a sparring match?" He looked at him with a glint in his eyes. "I could use the exercise."

Kaku laughed. "I'd be honored. Though the last time we fought I almost died."

He frowned. He leaned back in his chair. "You're one hell of a swordsman for a giraffe."

He laughed. "You're a pretty good swordsman yourself."

He green haired man got up from the chair. "Just don't go making shit up when you fight this time."

"I didn't have my powers long enough to come up with a skill set."

He glanced over his shoulder. "You need to work on that." He said and mumbled a 'dumbass' under his breath.

"Just try not to kill me this time. I'm sure Chopper doesn't want to stich me up again."

He turned around and said. "Don't get your ass kicked this time." And with that he left.

Kaku was soon realized from bed rest. Although his body had grown weak during the time he was grateful to get to know the crew better. He stepped out in the sun feeling its warmth he smiled to himself. Thinking back on what everyone had said to him Luffy's advise stuck out the most. A dream? He looked around at the crew. They all had a dream something to strive for could he really find one of his own?

He heard the captain call to him. "Hey Kaku!"

He looked over to the captain. No his captain. He smiled a little and yelled. "I'll be over there in a minute, Luffy!"

He took in a deep breath enjoying the smell of the ocean and the wood of the ship. These people were now to him his friends. He may have lost his 'family' but he gained a new one. He headed over there to his new family when he heard Usopp call.

"I see an island!"

He smiled. Another adventure awaited them.


	6. Chapter 6

Humanity

Chapter 5

The Island of the Lone Wolf

Once again the child like captain was cheering about an adventure as the crew got off the Thousand Sunny. This Island was small and the dock was on the back of the island facing the small village.

The group separated once they made land. Chopper went to get medical supplies, Sanji food, Nami clothes shopping, Robin went to the book store, Franky and Usopp went to see about getting materials for their projects.

Kaku was left with the captain. Zoro stayed on the ship again claiming to be training but Kaku figured he was napping.

The pair decided to explore the village some but there wasn't much to it. Luffy frowned.

"I'm so bored! What's with this island?"

Kaku smiled at the childish captain. "I think it's peaceful."

They were at the edge of the village. In front of them was some woods and a building could be seen in the distance. Some of the villagers stared at them from time to time.

"Sadly we are attracting attention." He informed the captain.

Luffy frowned. "Well their island is boring."

A young woman walked up to them. "Excuse me are you pirates?"

Before Kaku could stop him Luffy confirmed it. The assassin noted he needed to teach his captain about holding on to precious information.

She smiled. "Good." She looked around. "No one here will ask but we need your help."

"What's the problem ma'am?" asked Kaku

"There is a wolf on this island. We don't know where it came from but we hear it at night it's scaring the villagers."

"A wolf? Is it killing live stock?" asked Kaku

She shook her head. "It howls every night." She looked to the woods. "It lives up there. Poor Hanako up there all alone with the children."

They looked at each other.

"Oh sorry. Up there is an orphanage. We get children from time to time that are abandoned here. Hanako takes them in. She has such a large house but I fear for them they are too far from the village."

"Don't worry we'll check it out." Said Kaku

Luffy nodded. "Let's see if we can find this wolf."

The two of them headed up the path into the woods. Luffy was calling for the wolf Kaku was busy checking out their surroundings.

"If there is one there are other wolves. They tend not to live by themselves." Said Kaku

They got near the house. It was a large house that has seen better days. Off in the distance they heard a howl.

"Wolf." Kaku said.

They scanned the area. In the bushes the wolf eased closer to them. Sniffing the air he picked up their scents. One was rubbery like and the other… he sniffed again smiled so familiar. Wood chips with a mix of giraffe? The wolf peeked out from under a bush. He spotted the two of them. The wolf jumped out of the woods.

Kaku's reflexes kicked in. Jumping in front of the captain and yelled. "Iron body!"

The wolf changed while landing. "Kid!" He yelled.

Kaku blinked. "Jyabura?"

"Who?" asked Luffy.

The wolf laughed. "Boy is it good to see you kid!" He patted him on the back.

"What are you doing here?"

"After I got separated from everyone I got myself a ship. I washed up on the beach here and," he pointed to the house behind him. "Hanako found me and saved my life. I've been watching over her since."

"So you're the wolf that we were told about."

He nodded. "Yeah kid it's me."

Luffy was still confused. "Kaku who is this guy?"

Kaku laughed. Luffy seemed to forget people's faces and names. "Jyabura. He was in CP9 with me."

"He's a wolf guy?"

He nodded. "He ate a devil fruit like mine but he is a wolf."

He crossed his arms and nodded. "Oh okay I get it."

Jyabura looked at the rubber boy. "Kid how did you end up with him?"

He went to tell him when the door to the house opened.

"Akemi get back here!" A female voice yelled when a young boy charged out of the house. The boy swung a wooden sword at Kaku and Luffy.

"Get away from him!" the boy yelled.

A young woman ran out and grabbed the boy's arm. "Akemi stop it!" She was a thin woman with long black hair. Akemi was a small boy he looked about ten years old with short brown hair.

She looked up at them. "Sorry he's a handful."

He looked at her. "They were going to hurt Jyabura!"

The wolf shook his head. "Don't worry Akemi-kun I know these people."

The little boy looked at him and back to the others. Jyabura lowered down to him. "The one with the long nose is… Uncle Kaku."

The boy looked at him. "Uncle? Is he your brother?"

"Yeah… the other one is,"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! I'm a pirate!" He announced.

Kaku rolled his eyes. He was going to have a long talk with the boy when they got back on the ship.

Hanako gasped at the word pirate. She ran over to the child and put her arms around him. "Take whatever you want just don't hurt my child."

Luffy raised his hands. "No, no I don't want to hurt you. I don't want your stuff either."

She looked at him suspiciously still protecting her child.

"Ma'am we came here because a villager was worried about you. They were worried about a wolf." Said Kaku

Her eyes darted to Jyabura who looked at her. Somehow she understood him and let go of her child. "Sorry." She said. "We've had a pirate problem lately."

The child looked up at her. "Who cares about pirates? Jyabura can beat them in his sleep."

She sighed and looked at said man. "Can you do me a favor?" She handed him a list. "Can you get these things for me?"

He nodded and she headed back inside. The boy tugged on Luffy's pants.

"Hey pirate can I see you're ship?"

He laughed. "Yeah come on." He took the boy away and the two agents were left alone.

Kaku crossed his arms. "What does she know?"

He sighed. "As much as she needs to."

He frowned. "Wolf form?"

He nodded. "She does know that."

"CP9?"

"No never."

He smirked. "You're only staying because you like her."

He gasped. "What do you know kid!" he demanded loudly

He laughed. "Typical Jyabura."

"Look kid I love this woman okay!" He blushed. "She saved my life. I could have drowned on that beach."

He sighed. "I'm not surprised."

"What do you know your only 23?" He paused after that noting how Kaku seemed nearly disinterested in him at the moment. "Kid listen to me when I talk to you!"

"I have questions for you." He said sternly

His mouth was half open almost looking like a fish. "Huh what?"

He looked around. "Not here though." He gestured to the woods.

He looked. "Follow me." He took off into the woods and Kaku followed. He led him to a clearing far away from the village and Hanako's house.

"Kid I don't know why," He started and Kaku said.

"Consider yourself lucky I didn't punch you in the face."

He frowned. "Like you could kid! What is with you? You should be happy to see me!"

"I just want answers. Answer my questions and you can do whatever you want. Stay with the woman look for the others I don't care."

Jyabura got defensive. "What do you want to know?"

He crossed his arms. "Why did you guys drug me?"

He growled. "Kid there is only so much I know,"

"Tell me or I swear you wished you drowned all those months ago!"

He turned fast. "Listen you little bastard! If it wasn't for me you would have died! Snot nosed little shit! All you did is run your mouth!"

Kaku hit him so hard and fast Jyabura barely reacted. "Answer my question!"

Jyabura considered going wolf and teaching the brat a valuable lesson but stopped. He saw the look in his eyes. The boy was desperate, desperate for information. "Kid… I don't know much… The drug they used it on agents that wouldn't cooperate."

Kaku relaxed his grip studying his face making sure he wasn't lying he laid his hand on his pulse. "Cooperate?"

"When they brought you to our homeland, you wouldn't give in to the mind molding. You fought everything. You were one of the few children who were strong willed enough to fight it off." His breath hitched as he tightens his grip on his wrist. "I'm telling you what I know."

"How did I get on the island then? Where am I from?"

"I don't know." He tightened his grip and Jyabura screamed. "Stop it! I don't know!" He panted. "Kid, no Kaku I'm sorry! I have no idea what was going on in the background! They older CP9 agents brought you to our homeland. Dropped you off in the boys' dorm! You hide under the bed refusing to come out! I got you out and then you changed after that! You were a scared little shit back then! I was a teen I wasn't there when they trained you! You know that!" He panted as the pain got worse. "Come on kid! Don't the past mean anything to you? Put that garbage behind you! I saved your life. I carried you down the sea train tracks. You bleed all over me! I got Blueno to get you to safety! Damn it Kaku we wanted to protect you there was nothing we could do!"

He tightened his grip bringing the man to his knees. "Just like I figured. More secrets." He let him go he knew he wasn't lying. He looked at the other agent who was rubbing his wrist. "I can remember something's despite what you guys did to me."

"I never drugged you." He glared at him. "I would have killed you outright."

He frowned. Ager built up in him. He wanted to rip Jyabura apart. "Yeah you would wouldn't you!" He scorned at him. "But you're forgetting I'm stronger than you!"

He got up. "What happened to you kid?"

"CP9 that's what happened to me. Wanted a trained killer, they got one." He growled.

"I still remember that scared little boy."

A headache hit him. Not again! He thought he was over this. He staggered holding his head. The last thing he needed was to look weak in front of Jyabura.

_"Hey kid." _

_ He was under a bed. "Go away!" He shouted at the face in front of him. He crawled further back under the bed._

_ "Come on." A few teenage boys were looking at him. _

_ A hand reached out to him. "I know you're hungry, kid."_

Kaku was hit by the full force of Jyabura in his man-beast form. His memory stopped before it finished. He didn't invoke Iron Body quick enough. He kicked him with a tempest kick to get away from him. He turned into his man beast form as well.

"You shouldn't have challenged me, kid." The wolf growled. "I'll show you who's best!" He lunged again and Kaku dodged quickly. He kicked at him again wishing he brought his swords with him. Another attack from Jyabura and he dodged again.

Jyabura was getting angry. "Hold still so I can kick your ass!"

"Why? Just admit I'm stronger than you."

He howled at him. "At least I'm not a giraffe!"

"At least I don't smell like a wet dog."

Jyabura lunged and got him that time. Kaku let out a scream as he hit the ground. He tried to hit him with his neck but the wolf held his neck down. He squirmed kicking and punching with his arms and legs. He was getting so weak he needed to train and get stronger again. The wolf tightened his grip on his neck.

"I could kill you right now, kid."

He gasped trying to get him off of him. If he wasn't careful then he could die here.

He loosened his grip on his neck. "I can't do it." He let go of his neck. "Damn kid!" He got up off of his chest.

Kaku rolled over on his side and coughed. Pain wracked his chest area as he coughed.

"I'm sorry, Kaku." He leaned down beside him. "I think you needed that."

He coughed. "Needed what?" he asked in between coughs.

He ignored him and kept talking. "Sometimes a real man has to take a beating before he comes to his senses. You're lucky I like you or else I could have killed you." He stood up and reached down to him.

Kaku eyed him with suspicion.

"Don't give me that look. Come on kid I carried your ass from Enies Lobby to half ways up the sea train tracks. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

He took his hand and Jyabura helped him up. "I'm sorry I got so… carried away."

"It happens to the worse of us." He turned into his human form and fixed his clothes. He wasn't wearing his black CP9 clothes anymore he was now wearing a red shirt and with black pants. "I can't ruin these clothes I ain't got that many like I used to. Gave my last good shirt to Kalifa…" He looked up at him as he changed into his human form. He picked up his cap and dusted it off. "I was feeling good that day. Giving her my shirt carrying you around I must be getting soft. Maybe it was Gatherine." He sat the cap on Kaku's head. "Here you look weird without this old thing."

He fixed his hat and covered his eyes with the shadow of the bill. He was embarrassed for attacking him. "Jyabura I know this doesn't mean much now but… thank you for… back at Enies Lobby."

He nodded. "We have to look out for one another. The Government will never look after us." He looked up at the sky like he was thinking. "Those days… those days that we weren't on a mission those were some of the best days."

He stood silently listening to the older man talk.

"I miss those days." He sat down. "Hell I'm starting to miss everyone."

He sat beside him silently. The sun shone down on the two of them. He had a difficult relationship with the older man. Jyabura would fight at a drop of a hat but he could be compassionate at the same time. He knew that despite their differences that he did care about his wellbeing at least a little bit.

"So how did you end up with the Straw Hats anyways?"

Kaku told him what he knew and his adventure with them so far.

"Oh I see." He got up. "At least Akemi-kun is with safe hands." He blinked a few times. "Oh shit! I forgot Hanako wanted me to get her some stuff." He was getting ready to run back to the village when there was a loud explosion.

The explosion rocked the island and the two almost fell.

"The heck?" asked Kaku. He turned into his man-beast form to get a better view. Off in the distance he saw a pirate ship. "Pirates." He looked around seeing smoke blowing up from the trees. "Oh no!"

"Oh no what?"

He changed back. "Pirates! The attacked Hanako's house!"

His eyes widened. "Hanako!" He screamed. He ran through the woods as fast as he could.

Kaku followed him. He got away from the tree line. The house was smoking and on fire.

"Hanako!" Jyabura screamed. He ran to the house but was stopped by Kaku.

"Don't you can't get in there!"

He struggled. "I have to she's…" he fought back tears and screamed her name again.

He watched in horror trying to keep the man together. He heard someone run up he turned to see it was the Straw Hat pirates save for Luffy who he hoped was with Akemi.

"What happened?" Nami asked

"Pirates off the other coast. They attacked the house not sure why though." He answered.

Jyabura fought the urge to scream as he struggled to get away from Kaku. "I'll kill them! I'll kill all of them!"

They heard a scream off in the distance.

"That sounded like it came from the village." Said Chopper.

"Might be more than one ship." Said Robin crossing her arms.

"Bastards!" Yelled Jyabura who broke free of Kaku.

"Jyabura wait!" The man was such a hot head.

Luckily Sanji blocked him with his leg. The wolf growled at the love cook.

"Out of my way."

"No. You can't just throw your life away like that."

"What do you know?"

"He's right." Kaku said. He walked over to him calmly with his hands in his pockets. "She wouldn't want to throw your life away. What about Akemi? He's going to need someone to look after him."

He sucked in a breath. "But they,"

"We can work together." Said Kaku. "You, me and the straw hats."

He looked around. The pirates nodded. "I tried to kill you." He said to the teens. He felt emotional for a moment. Blocking tears of gratitude the group ran to the village.

The other pirates were attacking the village. One in the group was wearing a flashy red cape with a zebra print hat. He stood out like a sore thumb. If Kaku was a beating man he figured that guy was the captain.

"Get all the kids! We'll get paid well for them." Called the captain.

A few men cheered and a couple dragged Hanako up to the captain.

"We found here Captain Zebra."

He looked down at her. "Finally. Where are the kids?"

She looked away.

"Dumb bitch! I'll teach you," Zebra lesson was never taught as he was hit full force by a wolf.

Bam! The captain hit the ground. Jyabura turned into his man-beast form and held the captain down. "How about I teach you a lesson?"

The pirates screamed in shock then looked around. Surrounded by the Straw Hats and Kaku they didn't know what to do.

"What are they captain?"

"They don't pay us enough for this."

"Is that a giraffe?"

There was a pause and the other pirates laughed. Kaku growled in annoyance as Jyabura looked back at him.

"I told you, you looked stupid."

"Shut up!" He yelled.

The other pirates charged at them. Kaku took them down with ease. Wave after wave of pirates. The seemed to have their own army. Jyabura was trying to scare Zebra into leaving when he didn't notice another pirate with a gun was aiming at him.

"Get off my island!" Yelled Jyabura

"Get away from me you freak!" yelled Zebra. The captain spotted his man with a gun. "Shoot him!" He yelled.

The gun was leveled. Jyabura invoked Iron Body but before a shot was fired.

"Gum, gum pistol!" And with that the gun man was hit with an unimaginable force. The pirate flew like a rag doll into a building.

"That was cool!" Yelled Akemi.

Luffy looked at the boy. "Oh I told you to stay on the ship."

"Oh but I wanted to see a pirate fight." He spotted his mother. "Mom!" He cried. The boy almost ran to him but Luffy stopped him.

Distracted Zebra got Jyabura off of him. The captain ran over to the woman and grabbed her. He put a gun to her head. "Stop it! All you freaks put down your weapons."

Everyone stopped. The captain laughed. "Okay here's what happens now. You all leave my crew alone and I take the babe and the kid as my reward for the damage you guys did." While he was busy flapping his mouth he didn't notice that Kaku used shave and was beside him. Zebra stopped talking for a second when he noticed the long nosed man was beside him. His mouth flopped like a fish. He pointed his finger at him and said "Finger pistol." With a bang Hanako flinched as Zebra was flung back. Blood pouring out of his injured arm.

He helped up Hanako and nudged her to Akemi. He smiled when he saw mother and son hugging.

Zebra was holding his arm. His own crew had ran off now leaving him alone. "You son of a bitch!" He looked at the blood on his hand. Kaku and Jyabura walked closer to him. He screamed. "No stay away!" He moved away from them.

They moved closer. Kaku heard his friends yell at him to stop. He got near the captain thinking of how to finish him off. He raised a leg to do tempest kick when he was stopped by Luffy.

"Stop it now!" He wrapped his rubbery arms around him. "Don't do it!"

The captain jumped up and screamed. "Monsters! All of you monsters freaks!" the man ran off yelling for his crew.

Luffy let Kaku go. He hit him on the head.

"Ouch what,"

He narrowed his eyes. His face said more than words could. His captain was disappointed in him. He scanned the faces of his friends. The results were mixed but none looked too pleased with him.

Jyabura ran over to Hanako. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and hugged him. "Thank you." Her eyes focused on Kaku then she let him go. "Who are you guys?"

The two of them looked at her. Shadows cast over their faces she looked scared. "What are you?" She moved her son closer to her.

Villagers wondered out of their houses. "Monsters!" "Get out of here!"

Kaku realized they were looking at him. Him a monster? He wasn't in his man-beast form at the moment. He looked around. The villagers were afraid. Afraid of him. He went to explain his powers when someone threw a rock at him.

"Get out of this village!"

More rocks and chants of leave. He invoked iron body as a few rocks hit him. He stood there taking the assault.

"Stop it!" Franky yelled getting in front of Kaku. "He just saved you're guys butts and this is what you do?" He hated when people treated others like that just because they were different.

"Let it go Franky." He said as another rock flew by.

"What?" he looked back at him.

"I said let it go." He looked around. He invoked moon walk and jumped out of the line of fire. A few hops later and he was back on the ship.

He hit the deck. His body feeling the effects of using the six powers after so little exercise. He fell to his knees. He felt emotionally hurt. He could hear them yelling. "Monster!" Over and over again. He held his head and let out a sob. Sounding like a wounded animal he gave in. He was a monster. He just tried to kill a man twice in one day. Who was he kidding Spandam was right, he was a tool. A weapon selected and trained to kill. He wasn't a shipwright, a pirate, a friend, hell he was barely human.

He heard someone walk onto the ship. He didn't look up as someone sat down beside him. He felt a light hand on his shoulder. It was Robin. He knew it but he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

"The others are trying to smooth things over." She whispered.

He didn't answer didn't look at her. He suddenly felt so unworthy to be around her.

"Jyabura wanted to see you before we left."

Still nothing. She sighed and edged closer to him. He was beside her shoulder she was almost holding him up now. She could relate almost recalling how the childhood bullies treated her because they didn't understand.

"They are right." He finally said.

She looked at him but remained silent.

"I am a monster." He looked at his hands. "Trained and raised to be a monster."

She frowned. "Maybe you are a monster."

His heart sunk. A pain shot through him just hearing that from one of his new found friends really hurt more than it should.

"But if you're a monster than we are all monsters."

"Robin I almost killed a man today."

She looked into his face. "A man who was about to kill someone for his own gain. Who is really the monster? You or him?"

He paused and looked at the floor. Studying every line in the wood he finally said. "I am just a weapon…"

She put her arm around him. She tried to comfort him. Maybe she should have let the cook talk to him. The former CP9 agent looked defeated. Who knew one little word could bring a man down so low? "Weapon, monster, tool, giraffe, human? What does it really matter what others call you, Kaku? No matter what you are still Kaku, right? They can break you down with words but they can't destroy you, Kaku."

"Than what am I Robin? I was trained to kill. I wasn't trained to be a friend to be normal! What am I really?"

She smiled warmly. "You are Kaku and nothing in this world can take that from you."

He blinked a few times reregistering what she had said. He heard Luffy calling for them from the land. "Is Luffy mad at me?"

"More worried I think." She looked back and used her powers to generate an arm and wave at Luffy. "Ready to go back?"

He hesitated for a moment.

"I'm not going to force you. Jyabura did want to talk to you though." She stood up. "You should go down there and show them what you are."

He nodded feeling determined. He stood up beside her and saw the rest of the crew and Jyabura waiting for them. He tried his best to smile. Robin was right he was Kaku and no matter what they called him nothing could take that away.

**A/N: These chapters just keep getting longer XD I meant to make this shorter but hey there it is. Thanks for the reviews, follows, and faves. Mean the world to me.**


	7. Chapter 7

Humanity

Chapter 6

Key to the answers! The wolf and the giraffe talk!

Kaku smiled. He tried to put on a brave face as he noticed the villagers walk away from him. The crew, no his friends were standing there smiling at him. He glanced at the villagers that were hiding now.

"Ignore them." Said Luffy with a laugh.

He was happy to see Luffy smiling as opposed to how he was acting earlier. Jyabura walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder.

"You did good today, kid. Thanks for saving Hanako."

"No problem." He saw Hanako standing at a short distance. Her arm was around Akemi and few other children were nearby. He assumed that they were orphans that she took care of.

Akemi ran up to him grinning. "Hey can you turn into a giraffe again? It was so cool!"

He laughed and patted the boy on the head. "Sure." He turned into full giraffe mode and the kids ran up to him and petted him. Akemi managed to get on his back and use him as a slide. He looked at Jyabura. "I told you, kids like giraffes. That's why kids go to the zoo."

Luffy laughed and asked if he could slide down his back too to which he tried to climb up him.

"Hey Luffy don't you're too big!" Yelled Chopper. "I do not want to treat a neck injury."

Sanji grabbed his captain and pulled him away from Kaku.

Nami looked thoughtfully. "I think I just figured out a way to make money off of Kaku." She said with a giggle.

Kaku raised an eyebrow as the last child slide off of him. He changed back into a human as the kids ran around him checking him out. He laughed. Honestly he wasn't a big fan of kids but he could appreciate the admiration. "Lively bunch aren't they?" He asked Jyabura

"Not as lively as you're pirates." He said watching the crew bicker with Luffy over trying to slide down Kaku and Nami for trying to make money off of him.

He laughed as the kids took off busy figuring out Luffy. "Robin told me you wanted to talk to me."

He sighed. "Yeah, later when we are alone."

Franky walked over to them. "Hey me and Long nose-bro were talking about fixing Hanako's house back up. You want to help?"

"Is there enough supplies?" asked Kaku

He gestured to a building across the way. "That's a hardware store and there are plenty of trees so I think we can do it."

He nodded. "Okay."

"Yeah super!" He said striking his pose. "Me and Long Nose bro are going to get the stuff okay; you guys make sure the fire is out." He took off and grabbed Usopp on the way through.

Kaku laughed to himself. Cutty Flam was a character. He told the others what they were doing and they followed them.

In no time flat the fire was out. Franky came back with all the supplies, with so many of them helping though they kept Luffy at a distance the house was quickly repaired.

Hanako stood there in amazement with her son. "Wow I can't believe you guys got it done." She was in near tears. The house looked way better than what it did before heck it was the best looking house in the village now. "How can I repay you guys?"

"Well," stated Nami.

"Nami no!" yelled the crew.

"Don't worry about it." Said Luffy with a laugh

The sun was preparing to set. "At least let me cook you guy's dinner." She said.

"Meat!" Luffy cheered.

She laughed as she headed into her new house. The others followed though Jyabura stopped Kaku.

"We should talk now." Said the wolf.

He nodded. "I'll catch up with you guys later." He called to the crew heading inside.

The two former assassins headed to the clearing that they were at earlier in the day. Jyabura let out a sigh as he sat down in the grass.

Kaku crossed his arms and looked down at the older man. "Well you wanted to talk so talk."

He looked up at him. "Always direct and to the point, kid." He looked up and looked like he was selecting his words. "I find it hard to believe that a stick in the mud like you gets along with those pirates."

He smirked. "They have their moments and not all of them act like that."

He laughed. "Bunch of characters no wander we lost." He reached into his pocket and held out a key.

"A key?"

"It's what I wanted to talk about." He sighed again. "This key was only given to top agents. I got mine after you guys went to Water 7. Used to be that only Lucci and Spandam had one, this key unlocks a secret room in a library that holds several files."

He took the key and looked at it. He barely trusted the wolf though he tried to push that idea in the back of his mind. He looked at the key. It looked like a World Government key.

"I was told that the secret files contain everything that CP9 knows… including our files."

"They kept files on us? Why we are a secret organization?"

He shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I was told. I never made it to the library so I wouldn't know."

He bit his lip. "I guess they did have to keep some information on us."

"I'm not even sure if that is even in there. I figured if any place has the answers to your questions, kid. It's there." He stood up. "Now… I have to tell you." He looked down at the ground. "Kaku there is some things that you would be better off not knowing." He looked up at him. "If you think that knowing everything will make you happy than go ahead kid, but I think you should stay with your pirates and forget the whole thing."

He stared at the key. "So where is this library?"

"Lavender Island, you guys keep heading the way you are you might run into it." He laid his hand on his shoulder. "Kid, honestly you would be better off forgetting about CP9."

He put the key in his pocket. "Thank you all the same Jyabura."

"Yeah." He nodded

The two of them decided to head back to the house. Quietly they walked in. Kaku could smell whatever it was that Hanako was cooking.

"You're in for a real treat. Hanako's cooking is the best ever."

"I wonder if it is as good as Sanji's?" he asked with a laugh

They walked into the dining room. The food was already served. Robin looked up at the two of them and made eye contact with Kaku. She frowned. She could see in his eyes that he had something on his mind.

He sat beside her quickly. She leaned over and whispered.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded. "I'll tell you about it later."

The group ate laughed, talked, and shared stories. The crew talked about adventures they had been on and the kids enjoyed the wild tails. After dinner the crew decided to head back to their ship and set sail first thing in the morning.

Kaku walked quietly behind the crew. He felt heavy there was no other way to describe how he felt. He was glad the villagers didn't attack him but he figured they were probably afraid of the Straw Hats relenting on them. He looked back at the house a few lights were on. He sighed; it was hard to believe Jyabura was staying with this woman and a bunch of kids. He had changed a lot. He frowned for a moment another one of those headaches hit him again.

_He was hiding under a bed. He was scared he didn't want to be here. He wanted to be at home. Someone looked under the bed. He almost screamed when he saw five different pairs of eyes. He wiggled his way further back he was almost up against the wall now. He would wait it out until they were gone. But what then? _

_ Someone looked under there again and he heard talking._

_ "Yoyoi, how do you think we should get him out?"_

_ "He'll eventually come out if he gets hungry."_

_ "That's not very nice, chapapa." This person peeked under the bed. "He looks scared."_

_ "Go away!" He couldn't go back any further._

_ That person was pulled away and he heard. "Let me at him." An older teen with a scar on his face peeked under the bed. "If I get stuck,"_

_ "We'll laugh."_

_ "No you're sorry ass better pull me out!" he yelled. The teen crawled under the bad. Kaku let out a cry. He had nowhere to go now. The teen got as close to him as he could._

_ "Hey kid, man this bed is lower than what I thought."_

_ "Go away creep!"_

_ "Now don't be that way, kid."_

_ "Stop calling me kid I have a name."_

_ "What is it?"_

_ "None of your business!"_

_ He sighed. "I'm Jyabura, you hungry kid?" He handed him a candy bar._

_ "No! I don't take things from strangers."_

_ He rolled his eyes. "Stubborn kid."_

_ "Stop calling me that my name is Kaku!"_

_ "Kaku? What sort of name is that?"_

_ He frowned. "Jerk! Now go away!"_

_ "You have to come out sometime." _

_ He shook his head. Jyabura tried everything he could think of bribe him with food, tell a story then finally he said. "I can turn into a wolf."_

_ He frowned. "Now I know you are lying."_

_ "I can prove it." He turned his face into a snout. _

_ He screamed. He heard someone yell. "Don't scare him chapapa!"_

_ "If you're so freaking smart why didn't you do something?"_

_ "Because I can't fit under there, chapapa! Besides I thought you were smart enough to know not to scare a child."_

_ "Fukuro stop it. There is no point in having a battle of wits with the witless."_

_ Jyabura cussed then apologized to Kaku. "Run that by me again, Lucci!" _

_ "There is no point in battling with the witless."_

_ He bolted up and hit his head on the bed frame. "Shit! Get me out from under here!" He yelped and grabbed Kaku pulling him out with him._

_ The young boy screamed as he came out from under the bed. Five teen boys were standing around. Jyabura was fighting with another long haired teen. One with pink hair waved at him._

_ Jyabura looked back at him. "I'll fight you later, Lucci." He lowered down to the small child. He patted him on the head. "Welcome to the family, kid."_

Kaku blinked a few times. He felt someone hand on his shoulder. He looked over at the person.

Robin smiled warmly as usual. "Are you okay? He looked upset when you guys came back but now…" she reached up and wiped his cheeks. "You're crying."

He rubbed his eyes the crew was far ahead so he wasn't worried about the embarrassment. "I had a… dream about my childhood… at least I think it was." He looked back at the house. The heaviness in his heart returned. He knew what he was feeling. "Man…" He could feel her hands were still on him.

"What?"

"I think… I think I'm going to miss him."

"Jyabura?"

He nodded. "Yeah… he was… like an older brother. I feel bad leaving him now."

She smiled again. "It's hard to leave family. I can't imagine what you have gone through in your life but know this, your brother is happy. Did you see how he fought for Hanako and how Akemi reacted to him? He's forming a family."

He chuckled. "If you knew him like I did you would know that, that is hard to believe."

"Is it really?"

He paused. "No not really. He looked after me… took care of me… like a…" he almost got choked up. "A brother…. And I tried to hurt him."

She patted his shoulder. "I'm sure he knows you mean no harm."

He stared at the house for a minute.

"You want to talk to him?"

"I don't think there is anything else I can tell him. If he's happy I'm happy for him." He turned away remembering what he said to him. _Forget about CP9._ He pulled his hat over his eyes. Forget about CP9? Would that be the best thing to do? Bury his past and live for the future. Abandon all thoughts of them getting back together again? His soul felt heavy. He looked over at Robin who was studying him. No, he couldn't do that. Not to them.

She smiled again and moved closer to him. He could tell by her body posture that she was worried about him. Hard to believe that a few months ago they had arrested this woman and here she was showing concern for him. A person who was responsible for so much pain in her and her crews' life.

He covered his face. How could they accept him so fully? He realized that the crew was looking back at him. He felt himself blush a little. They were too far to see it. These people were almost like a new family. He clinched his fists.

"Why?"

"Why what?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Why despite everything do you guys care so much?"

She smiled. "Because you are our friend."

He felt warmth. Something he hadn't felt in years. He bit his lip fighting back more tears. He was looking pathetic these days.

The crew made it on the ship. Zoro called first watch and the others headed to bed. Kaku stayed up. He stood on the deck and got some fresh air. He knew that he couldn't sleep so he didn't bother trying. He wished someone was awake to talk to.

He thought about going to the kitchen but he knew Sanji wasn't awake. Robin wasn't an option either. He frowned and scanned the deck and did a mental checklist when he heard.

"Hey you dumb giraffe! Take your ass to bed!"

He looked up and saw Zoro in the crow's nest. He smirked. "Oh it's you moss head."

Zoro yelled some insults as Kaku climbed up to the crow's nest. He sat down beside him as the other swordsman was still cussing.

"I can't sleep." He stated plainly.

There was a pause then he said. "I noticed." Zoro could say without a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't much of a talker. He was barely a listener but even as much as he hated to admit it he could tell there was something eating at Kaku. The green haired swordsman thought for a moment before finally asking. "You want to have a sparring match?"

He laughed. "Didn't you get enough fighting in for today?"

"I'm always ready for a fight." He said standing up.

"That's funny because I am too."

Zoro struck first swinging the back side of his sword at him. He barely had time to invoke Iron Body before the sword hit him.

He swung his leg around and tried to kick the swordsman. He blocked his attack.

"Come on your slowing down." Said Zoro before he attacked again.

He tried to disarm him as the sword came down again. He caught his wrist but the other sword got him. Zoro hit him harder than what he meant too, the long nosed swordsman hit the ground.

"Ouch, shit." He swore rubbing the back of his head.

Zoro put up his swords. "You're slowing down." He reached out to him and helped him up. "You're attacks are weak."

He frowned at him. "Don't lecture me." He hated being criticized.

He sat down and crossed his legs relaxing. "You need to train some more."

He sat beside him and sighed. "I know I am. I fought with Jyabura before the pirates showed up… I seem to be getting weak. I need to train again I've been slacking too much."

"What sort of pathetic swordsman doesn't train?"

"Hey!" He yelled glaring at him.

"Look you obviously need to train." He grabbed one of his weights and handed it to him.

Kaku almost fell over when he took it. "Boy that is heavy."

"Weak." He said taking it and handing him a lighter one. "What training did you use at Water 7?"

"I worked at Galley-la and I ran and jumped through town." He said sarcastically.

"Well apparently you need to start training again." He said closing one eye.

He sighed. He wondered why he was getting so weak. He sat down the weight. "Sorry Zoro running is more my thing."

He yawned. "Ship is big but it isn't that big."

He noticed the swordsman getting tired. Of course Zoro seemed to be part cat as he was asleep more times than awake. "I'll take over for watch. You go on to bed."

Zoro almost jumped up. "Fine by me." He stood up and stretched.

"Thank you for the match. It's a lot better than us trying to kill each other."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sure." He said as he climbed down the latter.

He suppressed a yawn now he was tired. He got up and did some exercises. At least he could get a work out in if he couldn't sleep.

The next thing he knew was that the sun was shining on his face. He heard someone say his name. He opened one eye to see the cook standing there smoking.

"Sanji?" he asked with a yawn.

"Hey there sleepy head, way to handle the watch," he flicked the ashes off his smoke. "It was nice to sleep the whole night."

"I forgot to wake you for the watch."

"Yeah and the rest of us, we were looking everywhere for you. Freaking moss head forgot that you were up here."

He laughed. "What did you guys think happened to me?"

He shrugged. "We're about to set sail but someone is here to see you. Figured you would want to say goodbye before we go."

Kaku got up and climbed down the crow's nest. He knew who it was already. He walked over to the side of the ship where Luffy was.

"Wolf guy is here." Said the captain

He looked over at him and Jyabura smirked.

"Thought I'd stop by and say goodbye," he almost laughed. "And to remind you that turning into a giraffe is dumb." He added laughing.

He rolled his eyes. "Better than being a stinky dog."

He laughed. "Kid, you know I might almost you miss you."

"I might almost miss you too." He said laughing. "Send my regards to Hanako and Akemi. I hope you'll be a better 'father' than wolf."

He grinned. "I hope you're a better pirate than a giraffe." He looked at Luffy. "Straw Hat, take good care of him okay."

"Okay!" Luffy cheered. He looked over at the long nosed assassin and back at Jyabura. "You know you could come with us."

The man blinked. "Huh?" he looked at the teen who cast a glance over at Kaku. He laughed. "I hate to tell you straw hat but I don't get along well with others. I don't think me being on that ship would be all that good an idea. Besides, I found my true love here!" He turned around to leave then stopped. "Hey Kaku remember what I told you okay!" and with that the older man left.

Kaku frowned. He had been separated from him before well from everyone from CP9 but it had never bothered him this bad before. He clinched his fists and said. "It's funny, seeing him leave had never bothered me before… I think I'm becoming more human."

The captain tilted his head. "I thought you were already human… well except when you're a giraffe that is."

He laughed for a moment. He watched the island slowly disappear. He hoped Jyabura would be happier on the island with Hanako. He smiled grimly when Luffy hit him on the back almost knocking the wind out of him.

"Just because you are separated doesn't mean you're no longer family. I got an older brother who is also a pirate and no matter what he is still my brother."

"I guess that's true… thank you captain for… you know."

He laughed. "I told you to call me Luffy." He laughed again.

"What's so funny?"

"Wolf guy called you a pirate. You know what that means?"

"No."

"Means you're really a pirate!" He cheered with a grin.

Kaku wasn't sure about the pirate thing. Just because someone is called that doesn't make it true. He smiled to himself seeing how happy the captain was. He found it to be ironic. He spent years tracking down pirates and fighting in the name of justice and in the end became a pirate in name only. Kaku laughed. "I guess I'm a lot of things Luffy."

He titled his head. "Like what?"

"Giraffe, swordsman, shipwright, and pirate." He left out the most important ones though: assassin, murder, monster, weapon, and tool. He ran through the list not finding human on it anywhere.

"You can be a giraffe pirate! That would be so cool!"

Kaku noticed one thing as he laughed at his captain. No matter what happened, the crew always tried to make him feel better. He thought back on the days before they treated him like family they accepted him no matter what his flaws were they were there for him. He looked up at the sky. Does having a family make him human? Are the pirates his family or CP9?

"Do you think any of you guys would join or crew?"

"That's an odd question why?"

"I think maybe that you would be a little happier if one of them came along."

He thought about it. He had crossed paths with Fukuro and Jyabura already. He didn't know where the others were if they were still alive and joining the crew was a whole different story. "You don't need to worry about finding them to make me happy. You guys make me happy enough."

He smiled and laughed. "Alright!"

"Besides I'm pretty sure the others wouldn't join."

He frowned. "What's wrong with my crew?"

"Nothing, captain."

The captain left leaving him to his own thoughts. How would the others react if they knew? What would they do if he asked them to join? Laugh like Jyabura did? He almost hoped he would see them again if anything just to know if they were okay. He finally looked back the crew was doing their own thing now. He yawned and decided it was a good time to talk to Sanji over a cup of tea.

**A/N: Okay I noticed while I was working on this chapter I messed up. I portray Lucci way older than Kaku (I though he was about Jyabura's age) So yeah I'm going to keep the larger age gap for the two for the sake of the story. **


	8. Chapter 8

Humanity

Chapter 7

Resort Island!

Robin flipped through the pages of the book they found on Kirin Island. She hummed thoughtfully as she carefully examined the pages. She had long figured out the code for the book just getting through the book was difficult. Between stopping at various islands and Kaku suddenly stopping by for visits it was hard to get through this book.

She marked the page she was on and shut the book. They were out in the middle of the ocean once again. She could her Luffy and Usopp running around outside on the deck laughing. Occasionally she would hear Franky's voice or Chopper shout something. Just another day aboard the Thousand Sunny.

She got up from her chair and left the women's room. She stretched and let out a little yawn. Stepping outside into the fresh air she looked around. Nami was probably in the library working on the log books, she could see Usopp and Luffy fishing and Franky was watching them along with Chopper, Zoro was taking a nap in the crow's nest. She knew Sanji was probably cooking but she wondered where Kaku was. She hadn't seen much of him recently.

She decided to head to the kitchen. She was honestly surprised at herself how close her and Kaku were becoming. She had to admit that letting him on board the ship worried her some in the beginning but now she was happy to have him around. She felt bad about having reservations about him joining but that was to be expected after all CP9 put her through. No that was Spandam not Kaku well honestly none of the assassins. Kaku was a very polite young man she soon noticed.

When she walked into the kitchen Sanji and Kaku were sitting at the table drinking tea. She smiled and giggled. "I swear I think all you two do all day is drink tea." She sat down beside Kaku who just laughed.

"And I swear all you do is read."

She smiled as Sanji handed her a cup of tea. She had never during the time at Enies Lobby would imagine that one of the agents of CP9 would even be on their crew let alone that he would be such a great guy. But she knew and probably Sanji knew as well that the young man was deeply troubled by his past. She could tell that much like herself he was haunted by demons of the past. The boy was still plagued by nightmares he barely spoke about his own past and certainly not his future. She hoped that one day he would finally be free… like his friends wanted him to be.

It was hard to imagine what the assassins must have gone through. To live through the fight, a Buster Call, then to only be met with the harsh reality that they worked for a crazy man who was only concerned with his political gain. She almost pitied them… no she did pity them. From what she read from the book already none of them wanted this to be their life. They didn't choose CP9, CP9 chose them. She found herself wondering why the other agents were so hell bent on Kaku becoming free. She looked over at the long nosed man who was chatting with Sanji about what she didn't know. He was a mystery. One that she wanted to solve. Being the intellectual that she was she secretly hated not having all the answers to something. She knew somewhere in that book was the truth. She almost hoped the wolf would have provided all the answers but all he did was add more to the mystery. Kaku had told her the day before about the key and library and wanted her to keep it a secret for now.

She smiled when he glanced over at her. The answer to the mystery was somewhere within him and the book she knew it. She was determined to figure it out and help him overcome it and find his own dream. She sighed inwardly. She sometimes wondered what was wrong with her. Why did she want to help him so bad? Looking back on it he was one of the more polite ones in the group. Spandam hit her; Lucci looked down on her and honestly frightened her more than anything. The others ignored her but Kaku… Kaku was nice to her for her being a criminal. He would often loosen her hand cuffs so she could move her wrists, checked on her from time to time… really he didn't treat her like the Demon Child Nico Robin like the others did. No he treated her like she was a person. Maybe that's why she was so nice to him. Maybe she felt like returning the favor.

She finished her tea and got up from the table.

"Leaving already?" Kaku asked.

She looked at him. He looked up at her his brown eyes focused on her for a moment. She smiled warmly and asked. "Would you like me to stay longer, Kaku?"

He looked away. She could see a faint blush as he responded. "If you want to."

She sat down and he started talking again.

"I keep having this same dream. I'm back at Water 7… every time I'm on a roof top fighting with Lucci."

Sanji shrugged as he lit his smoke. "Maybe it's another memory coming back?" he suggested.

"I thought that but Lucci kills me at the end of dream."

"Well you clearly aren't dead so…"

Robin sipped her tea. "Maybe it's an omen. Maybe Lucci is going to kill you."

Both men yelled. "How can you say that so calmly?"

She shrugged. "Seems like an unlikely answer all the same. I had heard that dreaming about death means that there is a change coming." She stated plainly as she sat down her tea cup.

He frowned looking thoughtful. "I just assumed it was an old fear of mine coming up in my dreams."

"You feared that Lucci would kill you?" she asked

He put his hand on his chest. "I'm not sure. I honestly feel like he tried before." He closed his eyes in thought.

"Don't worry about it. You're with us now and if Lucci tries to kill you Luffy will beat his ass for you." Said Sanji

Kaku laughed. He had honestly a few times feared for his life when it came to the leopard agent. Seeing him take out new recruits like they were yesterday's trash didn't help either. He could still see the imagine in his mind.

_"Traitor! Talk like that will get you killed! I have no use for the weak!"_

He jumped. He heard them ask if he was okay. He nodded and about that time they heard Luffy yell about seeing an island. He sighed. At least an adventure would get his mind off of things.

The island was a large one. Kaku could tell that just from the dock alone. The buildings looked huge and highly decorated. He realized quickly that this was more than some village. It was a resort island.

The crew got off the ship and was greeted by a welcome. "Hello all. Welcome to Resort Island. Our island is the prime vacation spot for travelers, and pirates. All are welcomed her."

She handed a pamphlet to Nami. "I hope you all have a great time." She said then left.

Nami looked at the pamphlet and frowned. "This place just smells expensive."

Luffy sniffed. "I don't smell anything."

Chopper sniffed. "Oooh! I smell food!"

"Meat! Where?"

He pointed a hoofed hand. "That way!"

The two took off. "Hey wait!" yelled Nami. She groaned then looked at Usopp. "Usopp can you get them."

"I'll try." He said walking past her.

"And don't spend all our money!" she yelled after him. She looked at the pamphlet and then smiled suddenly. "A spa! They have spas here? Oh, and biggest shopping district! And a beach." She smiled. "Oh, a vacation does sound nice right now."

"I thought this place was too expensive." Said Zoro.

"Quiet you!" she flipped through the pamphlet again. "Maybe there is a cheap place to stay."

"Nami are you sure? This does seem to be an expensive resort." Said Robin who nearly went into sticker shock after checking out a hat that was being sold nearby.

"But Robin, there's a spa. We can relax, get our nails done and shop and other wonderful things."

Robin smiled a little. A spa did sound nice right now. "What about the guys?"

She flipped through the book. "I'm sure there are things for them to do." She put the book up. "Right, I'm going to find Luffy and get us a hotel. You guys check the place out!" She grabbed Robin. "Come on Robin." And with that they were gone.

Zoro groaned. "Ugh, women."

"What's wrong moss head? You don't want a manicure?" asked Sanji

He shot him a dirty look. "Well maybe you should get your eyebrows waxed, shit cook!"

"What was that?"

Before the two could have an all-out fight in public the two shipwrights stopped them.

"Chill bros." Said Franky. "Come on this place does look a little super." He glanced around. "Well I want a cola so let's go find a watering hole!" He yelled almost dragging the three other men with him.

They found a watering hole as Franky called it. A dimly lit bar that was far away from the docks. It looked like it was in the rough side of town. The three walked in the bar was surprisingly busy for a place that was looked so scary.

"Ah, customers. What are you drinking today?" Asked the bartender.

"Six colas!" yelled Franky as he sat down at the bar. The others joined him.

"Beer." Said Zoro

"Red wine." Said Sanji

"Rum and cola." Said Kaku

The bartender brought their drinks to them quickly. Kaku was sad to admit that somewhere deep down he hoped the bartender would be Blueno. He shook his head when Franky said.

"This place almost reminds me of the bar Blueno worked at." He said drinking his cola.

"Yeah I was think that too." Said Kaku. He had spent a lot of his off time there with Paulie and the rest of the crew. Despite being in such a rowdy group he still wasn't much a drinker, and this was something Zoro noticed quickly.

"Pouring a lot of soda in there."

He shrugged. "Even though I have seen the insides of many bars I'm not much of a drinker."

Sanji studied his wine. "This is good what is this?"

"Oh that wine is a specialty of our island. It comes from a grape that only grows once a year."

The other guys quickly said. "Sounds expensive."

Sanji drink a little. "It's really good though." He offered some to Kaku. "Try it."

The long nosed man frowned at the red drink and took a small sip. He nearly gaged. "Oh my *cough* that is just terrible."

The bartender glared at him like it was his own personal brew.

He kept coughing and the others began to laugh. "It's so dry."

The door opened up and Robin walked in. "I figured you guys would be here." She walked over to them and looked at Kaku. "Is he okay?"

"He's not manly enough for wine." Said Zoro.

Kaku launched into a few insults in between coughs. Robin looked at the cook who offered her some of the drink. She took a sip.

"That is good." No sooner than she said that the bartender presented her with a glass full.

"How can you two stand that stuff?" Kaku asked.

Ignoring his question Robin said. "Nami got us a hotel. It's just up the road a bit. It's called The Bayside Seaside. Apparently she got us a good deal on it. It's just so… flashy."

"Everything here seems to be flashy." Said Franky as he looked at a woman in a sparkly dress. "Super flashy."

"I have heard of this place before. It's a well-known resort that aims to make people feel rich." Said Robin.

"Seems kind of like a dumb idea to me." Said Zoro

"Yeah I thought resorts where there to get you to spend money." Said Kaku

"This one does but they offer the largest amounts of activities around." She finished her wine and got up. She reached in her pocket for money but the bartender stopped her.

"We add it on your tab at the hotel."

"Oh okay then." She looked over the men. "Boys, I'll see you at the hotel."

After the four them finished their drinks and headed to the hotel.

The hotel was a big wooden structure that reminded Kaku of homes in the books Kumadori showed him of his homeland.

The men walked into the hotel.

"Hello." Said the receptionist. "Are you interested in rooms? We have several to offer."

"We have rooms with… the straw hats." Said Sanji hoping that was the name Nami put it under.

"Oh yes." She pointed down the hall. "Room 103, double edition for the men and woman. Hot springs open up at 7-10. Men's springs are all the way at the end of your hallway."

The guys blinked at her for a moment then Sanji thanked her.

The group headed to the room. They could hear Luffy laughing so they knew they were at the right room. Opening the sliding door they found a large room.

Luffy and Chopper was jumping on the bed. Usopp was laughing at the two of them and Nami was trying to stop them.

"Super." Said Franky admiring how large the room was.

"Nami, how much was this?" asked Sanji

She grinned. "I got it at a discount. We get the room a whole week for half price."

"A week?"

Luffy got off the bed. "Nami and Robin really wanted to stay. Got to keep the crew happy besides this place seems cool."

"The other side of the wall is mine and Robin's room. You guys get this one." Said Nami. "There are tons of places to eat and things to do. What's most important is that we enjoy ourselves!" she said with a cheer.

Kaku smiled. He had never stayed at a place this nice. The World Government had a tight travel budget and feared putting them up in nice places would raise suspicions for some reason. He glanced around the big room. This place was huge. Maybe it would be fun to have a little vacation. He could honestly say he had never had one before.

The group went back to the ship and got their bags and settled in for the night. Kaku lay down on his bed. He was close to the others without being too close. He could hear Franky and Zoro snoring and occasionally someone else. He sighed; it was hard to sleep in an unfamiliar area for him. He sat up in bed considering going back to the hot spring then remembering it was closed.

He slide out of bed and put on the hotel provided sandals. He headed to the door when he heard.

"Can't sleep?"

He turned to see Chopper was awake as well.

"No not tired enough. I'm heading out for some air."

The reindeer nodded and got out of bed. "I'll join you."

The two left the room quietly and headed to the hotel's deck that over looked the ocean. Stepping outside in the sea breeze he did start feeling a little relaxed.

The reindeer stopped a yawn as he sat at a table. "It sure feels nice out here."

"If you're tired you can go back to bed. I'm grown I can find my way back."

He nodded. "I know but I figured you would want the company." He noticed a newspaper lying on the table. He picked it up wondering if the cross word was unsolved. He unfolded the paper. "I'm glad you recovered from you're injuries. Do you still get those headaches?"

"Not as much as I used to. I figured I would let the memories come to me instead of trying to remember… Chopper."

"What is it?"

"Why do you think they drugged me?" He had wondered that for some time. He thought it was the cause of most of his problems.

The doctor frowned. "I think it was to control you," He sat the paper down. "From what I read the drug suppresses thoughts and memories. More than likely you did something to upset someone in CP9 maybe you questioned their authority or something like that."

He nodded it was possible he supposed. "I guess I'll never know."

He shrugged. "You might, maybe." He looked down at the paper and gasped. "Kaku look!" He handed him the paper and the assassin looked at it.

**Breaking News. Members of World Government Agency Responsible for Attack on Enies Lobby**

He blinked. "What the hell?" He asked and kept reading.

**Seven agents working for the world government aided pirates in escape of criminal Nico Robin. During the chaos the judicial island was completely distorted. The seven agents are on the run and are currently being hunted down.**

Kaku couldn't stand to read the rest of it. Under the article were pictures of them. He gasped. He couldn't believe it. He figured that Spandam and the rest would sweep them under the rug and look for them quietly. Anger coursed through his body. He let out a scream and threw the paper.

Chopper ducked. He covered his head and looked at him with fear. "K-Kaku?"

He growled. He clinched his fists. "Sorry little guy. I just got angry that's all."

The reindeer looked at him with fear. He picked up the paper. "I can't believe they would do that."

He crossed his arms and frowned. "Spandam only cares about his image. That's it. I knew he blamed us for what happened but to go so far and blame us for everything!" Rage boiled in his body. He kicked a table and sent it flying over.

Chopper looked scared. He didn't know what to do. He considered getting Robin or Sanji to talk to him. "D-do you need uh…"

He bit his lip to hold back a scream. He sat down. "Sorry Chopper. I didn't mean to scare you."

Chopper's eyes were still wide. His mouth agape. This was one of those moments when Chopper saw the darker side of Kaku. He remembered seeing him in Iceberg's room when they tried to kill him. Seeing him with the other agents. He knew underneath it all Kaku was a capable killer and he was good at his job. He almost screamed. Fear went through him. His thoughts ran rapid what if Kaku turned on him. Seeing how easily one kick split that table.

"I'm sorry." He covered his face. He shook his head. "I didn't mean to react that way."

The doctor nodded. "I understand." His voice was shaky.

The assassin covered his face again when he heard a voice.

"Are you okay? I thought I heard a noise."

He looked over to see Robin had walked out on the deck. He told her about the paper article. She frowned. "I was hoping on some level that they were lying to me."

"Oh?" she asked.

He sighed. "I just couldn't believe it. We fight for justice and Spandam is more concerned about his image and blames us for his mistakes. Some justice they fight for." He growled. "I never questioned anything they told us…" He paused a sharp pain went through. Never questioned? No that wasn't right. He questioned everything they told him.

_"Why do we have to kill them? Justice! Justice for what? What did they do?" _

_ "Why is she so dangerous? She was only eight! So what if she can read a dead language! He shouldn't do that to her!"_

_ "That idiot would call the buster call…"_

He blinked. He rubbed his forehead. "I did question them… all the time. Justice… so called justice." He got up from his chair. "That's probably why they drugged me. I refused to believe their lies." He wrapped his arms around himself he felt sick. Robin patted him on the shoulder. "I guess we now know I am on the run." He looked around as if someone was looking at him now.

The woman smiled slightly. "You're safe with us. We never let anything happen to our friends."

He smiled. "Thank you." He felt a little better. "I have to admit that I do feel better around you guys. At least I have seen firsthand that you guys will go through hell and back to protect a friend."

Chopper laughed. Trying to put the incident out of his mind. Kaku wasn't violent right? He had no reason to think he would hurt any of them. The doctor tried not to yawn again and Kaku chuckled at him.

"Come on Chopper. Go back to bed you're tired."

The doctor nodded. "Yeah I guess I am sleepy." The Doctor got out of his chair but claimed the puzzle for himself for later. Yawning and biding goodnight to the others he head to bed. When he stepped in the hallway he heard.

"Is he okay?"

He looked up at Sanji and nodded. "He got a little mad but he is okay now… Robin is with him."

The cook light up a smoke and looked down at the reindeer. "Yeah, I heard all the noise. Woke me up."

The youngest member of the crew yawned again. Sanji laughed. "Come on Chopper lets go to bed." The two of them headed to the room. He glanced back at the deck he could see the two of them outside talking now. He wanted to talk to Kaku too but he figured that could wait till later. Putting out his cigarette he walked into the room.

He could still hear snoring. He helped Chopper into bed and he heard.

"Hey curly brow, is Kaku okay?"

He looked over at Zoro who was awake now too. "Yeah, he should be fine. At least I hope so."

The green haired man nodded then fell back asleep. Sanji raised an eyebrow at how fast he fell asleep and made his way back to bed and fell asleep fast.

Outside Kaku was frowning to himself. "Robin,"

"Yes?"

He sighed. "I want you to promise me something."

"What's that?"

"If… if they capture me… promise me that you guys will leave me."

She frowned. "Why would you want that?"

"After seeing what the crew did at Enies Lobby, I don't want them to get hurt just to save me. I arrested you, tried to kill Zoro and Usopp. I really don't deserve the treatment you guys give me now. If I do get caught they will take me some where far worse than Enies Lobby, I don't want you guys to come after me. You'll be better off that way."

She shook her head. "That's not up to me. That's up to the captain. Besides we never leave a friend." She tried to smile. Hearing that from him almost pained her. She realized that he was putting on a brave face for Chopper. He's words was much like her own before Enies Lobby. Rather dying than living out his life. It pained her to hear that from him. "Kaku I want you to make me a promise."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

She took his hands. "Promise me that you will never talk like that again. You're as much a part of this crew as any of us you are our friend." She let go of his hands and got up.

He sighed. "I promise Robin."

"Good," she said with a nod. "Come on; let's go back to bed it's getting late."

He followed her back inside. Inside he felt turmoil he knew he couldn't hold up that promise and yet he made it. Inwardly he shivered thinking about everything. Being wanted officially… was this why he kept having dreams about Lucci killing him and calling him a traitor. He wished for a dreamless night. When the two got their doors he bided her good night.

"Good night Kaku. Try to get some sleep I think Nami and Luffy have a busy day planned for us tomorrow."

He smiled. "I'm looking forward to it." He walked into his room. Everyone seemed to be asleep. He made his way back to his bed. He whispered a good night as soon as he shut his eyes he heard several good nights from the beds around him. He smiled to himself they were worried about him. It warmed his heart knowing that they cared and yet worried him that if something happened how much pain and trouble would they go through to get him back.

**A/N: Thank you all for the reviews and favorites and such. I hope this chapter was okay. I wrote it half asleep XD**


	9. Chapter 9

Humanity

Chapter 8

Time spent with friends! A lion makes an appearance!

The Straw hat crew where at the beach. The girls had long gone to the spa for the day and where watching the boys play volley ball while they lounged in chairs.

Nami sipped on a drink while Robin read. Occasionally the black haired woman would look up at the boys laughing and carrying on, the events of the previous night where forgotten but still in the back of her mind. She looked up and eyed the men. Zoro and Sanji had stopped playing to fight and Chopper was rearranging the teams.

She giggled when Nami shouted. "Stop fighting and start playing already!"

The reindeer got them organized which was almost like herding cats. "Okay, Luffy, Sanji, Usopp are one team. Zoro, Kaku and Franky are the other. I'll be the referee."

"But I want Zoro on my team." Whined Luffy

The others sighed. "Luffy we all can't be on the same team." Said Kaku shaking his head

Chopper walked over to the girls as the game resumed. He sat down beside Robin.

"How's he doing?" asked Robin

He knew the he, she meant. "He seems to be okay today. He doesn't seem to be as worked up as he was a few days."

A few seconds into the game and Luffy wanted to switch sides and Zoro and Sanji had broken out into another fight.

"I just hope he'll be okay." Said Chopper

"He's changed some since he joined us." Said Nami

Robin nodded. "He's opened up a little more to us."

"Oh," started Chopper. "Did you ever finish that book?"

"Not yet but it is interesting." She looked up when she heard more shouting.

"That's it you want to go let's go!" yelled Sanji

"Sanji stop it." Said Kaku getting in between the two of them.

"Anytime any place cook!" yelled Zoro

He kept the two apart. "Enough." He said sounding a little annoyed. "Can't you two solve this without fighting?"

They looked at him. "I can swim farther than you can!" yelled Zoro to Sanji.

"Bring it!"

The two men charged to the ocean and jumped in. The two swam to a marker and swam back however Zoro got lost.

"How could you get lost?" Yelled Franky at Zoro

Despite getting lost Zoro and Sanji got back to the beach at the same time. Luffy laughed. "Way to go guys!"

"That's it lets race!" yelled Sanji.

The two took off. Luffy chased after them laughing. "I want to race too!"

Kaku laughed. He shook his head it amazes him how the crew could act so childish. He was happy to see them be so carefree. Never in his life at CP9 was he able to have 'fun' like this or see this many people smiling. Yes, from time to time Jyabura or Fukuro would do something funny but it was rare to find carefreeness in assassin's line of work. He looked over at the girls and Chopper. He headed over to them as Usopp and Franky decided to join in the race too. He knew he was faster than them and didn't want to outperform them.

The girls were looking over something as he walked over to them. Robin looked up at him and smiled. "Bored of volley ball already?"

He looked back the others. "Well it looks like it turned into a race."

"Me and Nami was thinking about seeing a show. There is apparently a well-known show that is supposed to be really interesting. Want to come with us?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug. "Chopper are you coming too?"

The reindeer nodded. "I've always wanted to see a play. Maybe they'll have some cotton candy."

They laughed. The two girls got up from their chairs. "Alright lets go." Said Nami

Kaku glanced back at the others who was still racing. "Hey guys! Me and Chopper are taking the ladies out on a date!" he called to them

The girls giggled and Sanji almost tripped over his own feet. Correcting himself before he fell he ran over to them at top speed yelling. "You are not taking my Nami-swan anywhere without me!"

Kaku laughed. The cook was really fast when it came to 'protecting' his swan. Said cook caught up with them and cleared his throat. "Let's go ladies." He said taking Nami's arm into his.

The navigator shot him a dirty look. "Let go Sanji!" she yelled and tried to push him away.

Kaku looked at Robin who smiled and said. "Nami don't abuse cook-san."

The navigator looked at her and yelled. "At least you don't have this pervert of a cook hanging off of you!" He tried to grab her hand. "I don't want to hold hands this isn't a date!" She was getting irritated as the cook kept gushing on about his love for her.

"Come on let's go or else we'll be late for the play." Said Robin.

The five of them headed off to see the play. The resort island was quiet busy. Several groups of tourists where there and there was booths and stands that dotted the city streets selling various things like clothes, jewelry, souvenirs, and food.

Kaku had never been to a place this lively before. It almost threw him off how crowded the streets where. Most of his missions led him to more quiet islands that usually only had one or two small villages. Then of course there was Water 7 that was always busy even days leading up to Aqua Lagoona. He looked at the people with him. Nami had given up on her fight with Sanji and linked arms with him just to keep him quiet. Robin was once in a while glancing at the items at various booths. Chopper was taking in the scene with nose smelling the air every few minutes. Kaku was getting ready to ask the young doctor about it when the reindeers eyes suddenly light up.

"I smell cotton candy!" He yelled looking around to find the food.

Kaku spotted the vender. "I see it." He said. The reindeer followed him as they made their way to the booth. Kaku got him his cotton candy and handed it to the reindeer who was grinning ear to ear. "Here Chopper. Consider it a small thank you for patching me up."

The reindeer grinned even more. "Flattery won't get you anywhere, idiot." He took the cotton candy.

They made their way to the outdoor theater. There was a stage with some trees with pink blossoms on it. A big banter huge above it the stage reading.

**The story of the eight animals**

They got as close to the front as the good as a sizable crowd had gathered already. They over heard people talking.

"This show is different."

"Yeah I've seen it five times."

Nami raised an eyebrow. "Apparently this is a popular show."

Chopper frowned. "I can't see the stage." No sooner than he sad that Sanji picked him up and set him on his shoulders.

" Better?"

"Yeah now I can see everything!" The lights dimmed and he mumbled an "Oooh."

A big spot light shinned on the middle of the stage. A few blossoms fell down from who knows where and there was some strange music as well. Kaku frowned this overly dramatic display reminded him of someone.

A curtain opened up and stepped out was a man wearing a lions mask. He had a staff and hit it on the ground and began to speak. "Today I shall tell you a story…. A story about… nine and their tragic tale…" The man dragged out so many words it was ridiculous.

"I hope none of them dies." Whispered Chopper.

Kaku frowned. Could this person be Kumadori? No sooner than he thought it Nami asked.

"Isn't that octopus haired guy?"

Chopper looked confused. "How? But this guy is a lion?"

The others sighed and Kaku said. "I think it is Kumadori. If not than its someone who is a heck a lot like him."

The curtain closed and opened up again there were nine people on the stage now with different animal masks. The animals where: a leopard, wolf, bull, sheep, giraffe, owl, panda, and the lion.

"As the world turns the seasons changes. These animals used to live on their own islands throughout the seas. One day the panda came and took them all away from their zoos to his own zoo." As Kumadori spoke the animals acted out the words. "The panda led the other animals as the head animal despite the panda's stupidity. Each animal had their own ideas and feelings. The leopard was blood thirsty and craved justice. The wolf was cunning and constantly challenging the leopard. The bull was quiet but strong. The sheep was seductive but reserved. The owl was silent but loved gossip. The giraffe was honest but serious. The lion was honorable."

Kaku then realized that his suspicions were right. This story was about CP9. He bit his lip and frown. Kumadori scanned over the crowd and held his gaze on them. Kaku gave him a small nod and Kumadori continued.

"The animals' cages got smaller and smaller every day. Soon their lives were completely controlled by the panda. The panda only cared about status. He belittled the other animals as he enjoyed watching their freedoms being taken away. The panda became more greedy in his quest for power and tried to take a robin away from her flock. He sent the giraffe, lion, sheep, and bull to get the robin."

Nami leaned over to Robin. "I take it he's talking about you."

She nodded. "It seems that way."

There was a flash of flower peddles. More people entered the stage. "They brought the robin to the zoo. The animals where sad to take the robin away from her home. The robin lost its light after a short amount of time. Then the robins flock came to the zoo to retrieve her. The panda made the animals fight the flock, the flock defeated all the animals and destroyed the zoo and took back their friend. This angered the panda who took his rage out on the animals. The seven animals were able to flee the zoo. With the panda gone they were able to continue their lives. Each animal went on to different islands and find true freedom and happiness." He bowed and the crowd cheered and clapped. He rose up and focused on Kaku and the others.

"That wasn't too bad for a weirdo." Said Nami

The actors exited the stage and the crowd went to them. Kumadori managed to get around the group. "Kaku!" he called. The pink haired man charged to him and hugged the long nosed man tightly. "Kaku my boy I have missed you so much!"

"I missed you too Kumadori but you are hugging me too tight."

The pink haired man let him go and apologized. He looked at the pirates that was with him and then he saw Chopper. "You!" He almost screamed.

"Hi." Said Chopper with a smile. "I liked your play."

He looked nervous. "Uh, thank you…"

Kaku looked at Kumadori. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry for what I did really." Said Chopper.

It then clicked in Kaku's mind. "Oh you fought Chopper. But he isn't…" he then remembered seeing the big monster that ran in when he and Jyabura where fighting Sanji and Zoro. "Oh okay I think I get it."

The pink haired man raised an eyebrow. "How did you get with the pirates?"

Kaku explained to him the events leading up to now.

"Oh I see. I'm glad to know that they are well. I wished I knew what happened to the others though."

"As do I, I'm glad that you're doing good, Kumadori." He patted him on his back. Much like most of his life he remembered bits and pieces of his past. He could remember that Kumadori was like a big brother figure more so than Jyabura. He could remember Kumadori reading to him when he first came to their training land. He would watch over him and protected him when needed until he grew up. He remembered being upset when the older man had left the island. He was always easy to talk to him.

"Words cannot express how happy I am to see that you are well." Flower petals fell around him. "Like a flower on a spring day life can bloom with proper care." He looked at the other pirates. "I ask you four to take good care of him." He turned around to leave but Kaku stopped him.

"I wanted to ask you some questions." He glanced back at the pirates. "You guys go ahead without me."

Chopper and Sanji looked disappointed and Robin said. "Okay we will meet you at the place we had lunch at yesterday." And with that she led the others away.

Kaku sighed and looked back at the pink haired man. "Listen… it's come to my attention that will I was in CP9 I was given some drug that had destroyed most of my memories."

The man nodded. "Sadly there was no tolerance for questions among our group." He hit his staff on the ground. "A flower blooms every spring but is sadly cut down by sudden cold air. Thus the flower withers and dies."

He frowned. As much as he liked and respected the older agent his manner of speaking left something to be desired. He really wished he would just talk to him. "Kumadori, I just want to know what happened to me. I got a key to a hidden library from Jyabura and he really didn't seem to want me to look into it."

He let out a long sigh. "The curious child is often hurt by what he learns."

"I thought curiosity killed the cat?"

"Maybe a giraffe if one isn't careful. There is not much I can tell you that you already do not know. I am sorry. I missed most of what happened while I was training on my own to learn Life Return."

"Just tell me what you do know. I would feel better hearing it from you." It wasn't that he didn't trust the wolf's information but he had been trained to learn as much as he could.

"The flower bloomed in the spring and was crushed by the winters chill."

"In English!" He shouted.

The other man flinched then started over. "When you came to the home land you were only six. We were told very little about where you came from and you didn't offer much information. You fought with the teachers there and was very stubborn. I left for my own training, when I returned you were… different to say the least. You seemed distant and you barely remembered me. I figured it was because you were young when I was there last. After some time I realized they had done something to you. You seemed to start remembering me and you began questioning the purpose of CP9. That was when I saw it; they got something and injected you. After that you quieted down and anytime you acted out they did it. I found out from… someone that it was supposed to only be used once and then the training would work better, you however seemed not to be as affected by it. So they used it on you more often and the more they used the more you lost. Honestly I'm surprised you remember your own name or what happened at Water 7."

He looked down at the ground. "I see. And what about the place Jyabura told me about? This place that supposedly has all our files and everything?"

He looked thoughtful. "I think I overheard Spandam tell Lucci about it once. I personally know nothing about it sort of what you just told me."

"Okay, thank you Kumadori." He turned away but the lion like agent stopped him.

"Kaku, the mind can only handle so much. I mean this as no insult but with all that has happened to your mind it might be weakened. Could you really handle the truth? Sometimes the real answers is far worse than not knowing anything."

"Are you sure you don't know anything because Jyabura said something similar to me."

"I speak merely as a concerned friend." He patted him on the back. "It was great to see you young Kaku. I am eternally happy that you are well. Maybe I can sleep better at night knowing you lived through your injuries."

He smiled. "Well it wasn't easy. I'm glad that you are okay too and that you found your calling."

He laughed. "I always loved the theater! Of course I assumed you would work as a shipwright."

"My former boss was afraid of what the citizens would do to me. Apparently word got out about us after everything that happened."

"To bad, I know you always enjoyed your ships. May haps there is another company that will take you." He hit his staff on the ground. "As the wind blows the flower petals, seeds spread throughout the land creating new life." He hit his staff again. "Follow the wind Kaku there you will find your dreams. We shall meet again one day."

The lion like assassin turned to leave but he stopped him. "Hey you want to join me and the others for lunch."

He paused and let out a sigh. "I do not think it would be wise Kaku. The threads of fate has long been cut. It would be better for us to part rather than cling to the threads."

He narrowed his eyes. "Kumadori, I really wish you would stop speaking in riddles."

"I know you know within your heart what I speak. You're a smart lad." He patted his shoulder. "It's safer this way. Lucci told us that,"

"Wait Lucci, you spoke to Lucci?" His eyes widened. Something about the thought of Lucci being out there scared him to the core however it did bring him some comfort. "When? Where is he?"

He waved his hand. "After we escaped Enies Lobby, we walked on the sea train tracks. You were so injured that we feared that you would die,"

"I know that." He interrupted him.

He sighed. "We had you and Lucci. Both bleeding badly. Jyabura got Blueno to take you to Water 7 using the air door to get you to safety. We knew that you would have a better life there. After that we made it to St. Poplar and we had to work to make money to pay for Lucci's medical bills. That's where I met the other actors in this group. Lucci eventually woke up and he told us the best way to survive was to separate. I joined the actor group, I didn't know about the others. I think Blueno might have stayed with Lucci to make sure he was fully recovered."

"What did you tell him about me?"

"That you went back to Water 7. That's what we thought happened to you anyways." He shook his head. "I am terribly sorry for all of this."

He nodded. He knew he yelled at Jyabura and got mouthy with Fukuro over similar stories. He couldn't get mad at Kumadori. He knew this; this man looked after him more so than the other agents did to him he was more of an older brother than Jyabura. He frowned again his heart felt so heavy. It was a feeling he was sadly getting used to. He pulled the bill of his hat down over his eyes and turned away. "You take care Kumadori."

Kaku walked away from the pink haired man. The bill of his hat shielding his face so no one could see how upset he was. He was a trained killer and hated seeming weak. He was so conflicted over how his former co-workers made him feel. His feet guided him to the restaurant that the others went too. He heard someone call his name and looked up to see Chopper waving at him. He tried to put on a brave face as he got closer to them.

"Hey there Kaku." Said Nami smiling at him. "Did you have a nice talk with that octopus guy?"

"Kumadori, his name is Kumadori." He said. Venom dripped off his words. He didn't mean to get snappy with the navigator. He pulled at his collar and focused on the ground for a moment almost worried Sanji might kick him in the face.

Robin sensing the mood walked over to him and whispered in his ear. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head but remained silent.

Chopper ran over to him apparently not sensing the mood. He grabbed his hand. "Come on, Nami already got us a table." He started pulling on him. "We waited for you. It didn't feel right eating without you. Shame Kumadori didn't come with you. I wanted to talk to him about his biofeedback abilities."

Kaku smiled. A genuine smile. Something he could never remember doing as the little reindeer pulled him along. "Chopper stop." He said laughing.

The mood among the group lightened as they went to their table that had been waiting for them.

Tough out the meal he kept thinking about what Jyabura and Kumadori said. Neither one wanted to stick around they both pushed him to keep going down this path. What secrets did CP9 hold that was so bad that neither one of them wanted him to know? He looked at the pirates. Chopper was smiling as he talked about the play and wanting to see another one soon. Nami was smiling and listening to him and commenting once in a while about going to another play. Sanji lit up a cigarette and looked over at Kaku. He nodded at him slightly. Kaku had to talk to Sanji at some point and work though his feelings. He felt bad unloading so much on the cook but the cook didn't seem to mind. Robin was beside him and whispered to him.

"Kumadori tell you the same thing."

He nodded still remaining silent. There was a heavy pause before he said. "I really hatted leaving him. I feel like I will never see him again."

She raised an eyebrow the others got quiet.

"But why?" asked Chopper.

He licked his lips thinking. "We're wanted people now… I go the feeling from him that he thinks it isn't safe for us to be seen together." He stared at his drink for minute watching the ice sink further into the glass. There was that heavy feeling again. He bit his lip he fell this body shaking some.

Sanji suddenly got up from his chair and walked over to him. "Let's take a walk."

He looked up at the blond man. He cigarette was in between his teeth his hands in his pockets. He wore a stern expression as he stared down at the former agent. "What?"

"Let's take a walk. Looks like we're both done anyways."

He nodded and got up. Maybe talking to Sanji would help.

The cook looked down at Chopper. "Chopper you're the ladies escort make sure they get back to the hotel safely."

The reindeer saluted him and said. "Yes sir!"

The two men stepped outside the restaurant. A breeze blew by and knocked the fire off of Sanji's cigarette. He lit it again following Kaku who just started walking.

"So, you're obviously upset." He exhaled a lung full of smoke. "Any idiot can tell. Hell even Luffy has noticed you've been off since we ran into the wolf." He looked up at the sky before speaking again. "Listen I can't imagine how you feel, and I don't claim to know how you feel. But you need to get your head out of your ass and stop acting like this."

Insulted the former assassin yelled a lot louder than he meant to. "Acting like what? Like my life has been shattered? That everything I ever knew has been ripped apart and thrown back in my face! What is it Sanji?"

People walking by stared at them fighting in the streets. Between the two of them enough dirty looks was given to those around them that most people didn't even get within a hundred feet of them.

He puffed on his smoke and pulled it out of his mouth. He pointed at him and spoke. "Like that! You have been fighting with everyone on the crew being depressed and distant! You yelled at Chopper when we got here, you got uppity with Nami-swan, and now you're fighting with me!"

"Fighting? If we were fighting you'd be on the ground cook!"

Sanji growled and nearly bite his cigarette in two. "Don't you mess with me giraffe! If moss head can beat you so can I!"

"Yeah right! All you are is a cook with an over grown libido! What are you good for? All I see you do is cook and flirt with Nami like some annoying creep!"

No sooner than those words left the capped man's mouth Sanji tossed his cigarette and brought his foot around to kick him in the face.

Kaku invoked Iron Body and although the boot connected with his face it did no damage. The people on the streets took off like ants. Kaku grabbed his ankle. "Big mistake cook." He flung his leg back and knocking the cook on his back with a loud thud. He stood over him as the cook swore at him. "You can't beat me Sanji! I'm surprised you beat Jyabura. Maybe he got tired from chasing after Zoro and Usopp." He smirked.

Sanji swung his legs around and knocked Kaku down. He stood up fast and went to kick him. The former agent moved out of the way and jumped up.

"My body is a weapon. All you have is a set of legs. If I really wanted to hurt you, you would be done for."

Sanji glared at him. "God you're so freaking arrogant. How did I not notice this before? I thought you were a great guy it turns out your just an asshole!" He went to kick him again when suddenly he heard.

"Sanji stop it!"

His leg was grabbed by a couple of arms. He assumed that it was Robin. He looked up to see the girls and Chopper heading towards them.

"What are you doing?" demanded Nami as she got between the two of them.

Sanji looked at her. He lowered his leg and said. "Beating some sense into him, he needs it."

"Yeah right, I was beating you and I don't need sense beat into me." Said Kaku

"Stop it both of you!" Yelled Chopper. "Aren't we all friends?"

"Friends?" he asked sarcastically. "I have no friends! I have nothing no one in my life! I have no family no home! No job no dream I have nothing! You idealist pirates will never understand how I feel! You guys have dreams! You have a purpose to continue every day I have nothing!" He turned away from the group and said barely above a whisper. "I don't belong with you, I can't go back to CP9, and I was tossed out of Water 7 I have nowhere to go."

He left the group despite Chopper and Nami yelling his name repeatedly what was the point in stopping now, he figured they would never want to see him again. He had yelled at them kept them at arm's length since he met them there was no way they would take him back.

He didn't know where he was going but he was heading somewhere. The people on the streets thickened up again and he swam through the crowds. His mind was racing. What was he going to do now? He considered tracking down Kumadori and joining him but would he even take him back. Once again his mind was wondering what was so bad about him that both he and Jyabura wanted to avoid the subject all together. He paused and clinched his fists listening to those that walked by. Hearing them talking about shopping, eating, seeing a show typical vacation stuff… typical human stuff.

He wanted to scream and shout. Beat the holy hell out of someone and something. He bite his lip holding back the scream and just kept walking. He was on the edge of exploding he could feel it. Violent outbursts were dangerous for a man like him. His last outburst nearly took out the Tower of Law.

He thought about going to the bar and drinking his troubles away but getting drunk wouldn't help him. Last thing he needed was to be in an altered state of mind. The people finally started thinning out. He was out on a beach now. There was no one around. He scanned the area confirming that there was indeed no one, he sucked in some air and belted out a scream so loud the next island probably heard it. He screamed some more and kicked a tree knocking it down. He panted a few times and took out his anger on the fallen tree. Splinters flew up as he kept kicking it over and over again. After the tree was almost dust he screamed again and fell to his knees. Boy it felt good to let that out at last.

"Do you feel better?"

He looked over his shoulder to see Robin standing there. "Did you see all that?"

She nodded. "I followed you. I was worried." She walked over to him and knelt down beside him.

"Look I," He started but she laid her finger on his lips.

"I know how you feel Kaku. Remember I was a fugitive since I was eight years old." She sighed hugging her knees to her chest. "I never knew anything about friends or family. Everyone I met betrayed me. I had nowhere to rest my head at night safely. I knew nothing about peace, hope or dreams and then… I met them." She smiled at the last part, "I was ready to die. I had no hopes nothing; I knew my life would be full of misery. Living for twenty years like that… when I met the crew and decided to join them I knew I finally found my friends. It just took me getting arrested by you all for me to fully realize that. Before my island was destroyed, I meat a giant named Saul. He told me to go to the sea and that I would find friends out there. It took me years but I finally did." She sighed and laid her hand on his shoulder. "I can somewhat relate to your situation. Just don't give up on us. We maybe idealist, we maybe dreamers, possibly some of us is childish but we mean well. Just remember we could have left you to bleed to death on the streets of Water 7, or left you alone at Galley-la. Thing is we didn't have to help you."

A chill went through his body at the last part. "Thank you Robin. I feel bad acting out like that." He chuckled. "Like some teenager or something. Maybe I never did learn how to deal with my emotions like an adult." He shrugged. "Guess that's what happens when you're raised on an island that trains killers."

She nodded. "True. You have been very emotional recently. So what happened between you and Kumadori?"

He told her about their conversation. "So I didn't learn much other than Lucci is alive and Blueno is with him. He didn't know anything about the key that Jyabura gave me and he also wanted to keep his distance from me." He looked around feeling like he was being watched for a moment. "I'm starting to wonder… did they really send me away to get help or am I the main target."

"Target of who?"

"I don't know it seems strange that they would act so… like they don't want to be seen with me. They seem over joyed to see me to know I'm alive but when I press them for information they shut me out. I wonder what they are trying to hide. We don't work for the World Government anymore why are they hiding information from me?"

She shrugged. "I guess they have their reasons…" She glanced over at the damaged tree. She thought for a moment wanting to tell him about the book but was worried he would have another outburst. "I know you are upset that they are clearly hiding something from you but remember they did want to save your life. You clearly mean something to them."

He chuckled darkly. "First time in CP9 history a fellow agent cared about what happened to their own."

She studied her hands. "I don't think that's entirely true. I studied people for a long time trying to figure them out it's something I enjoy doing, but while I was under arrest I watched you guys interact with one another I could tell you guys were like a pseudo family. You may think that they didn't care but it was in their body language you all cared about each other. It was like a secret club or a weird family." She stood up and held. "It may have been some of the most terrifying moments in my life but in that time watching you guys I realized that you where more than trained killers," She looked down at him face unreadable. "You were people, people with their own ideas, personalities and thoughts." She reached out to him to help him up. "You might think that you're less than human but from what I saw you're a human, you all were."

He stared at her for a moment his eyes wide. "You came to that conclusion just by watching us?"

She smiled. "I spent a lot of years watching people I can learn a lot in a short amount of time. It was necessary for survival. Who could I trust? What did they offer me?"

He took her hand and stood up. "You would have been a good agent."

She laughed. "Thank you… I think."

"So which one of us could you trust?"

She put her finger to her chin thinking. "None of you really."

He raised an eyebrow almost looking insulted but she continued talking.

"You all were very good at your jobs and could 'be' anyone you wanted to be. I felt the most comfortable around you though. You were nicer to me than the other three where, although Lucci did so some compassion when Spandam wanted him to drag me by my hair."

"Lucci and compassion don't go together."

She shrugged. "Just stating the facts Kaku, it wasn't something I was expecting from any of you all."

He nodded then paused. "Man I have been a jerk these last few days." He adjusted his cap. "How can I make it up to Sanji?"

She titled her head. "Don't know. But I'm sure you'll figure it out." She looped her arm around his. "Come on let's go back everyone is probably worried."

He looked at the ground. "Like they would want me back."

She smiled. "They will. You can't just leave the crew like that, Luffy will hunt you down."

"Somehow that scares me more than it should."

They both laughed. Robin shook her head recalling how much trouble the crew had gone through to get her back. She glanced over at Kaku who still looked lost in his own world.

She broke the silence. "Don't worry. I'm sure Sanji will forgive you."

He smirked. "I hope so."

"I know so."

They headed back to the hotel everyone was waiting in the lounge area. Chopper was the first to see them.

"Hey guys!" He cheered.

She smiled and pushed Kaku in front of her. "See I brought him back."

Kaku bowed and said. "I am so sorry please forgive my rude behavior." He apologized repeatedly over and over until Luffy said.

"Okay we get it stop it." The captain had his arms crossed. He frowned as he walked up to him. "Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

Kaku looked up at him looking him in the eyes. "I am truly sorry. I don't know how to make up for my past behavior." He looked down at the ground and said sadly. "If you want to throw me out of the crew I understand."

Luffy reached up and hit him on the back of the head.

"Ouch hey what was that for?"

"Idiot," he said then grinned. "You can't get out of this crew that easily. I still need a giraffe on my ship."

Kaku laughed. "I guess so." He adjusted his hat and looked over at Sanji. "Sanji I am terribly sorry for attacking you."

He lit a cigarette and said. "Nah its fine, we were both hot headed assholes today."

And with that all was fine. The crew talked amongst themselves for a while. Nami walked up to Kaku.

"I almost forgot after we headed back here I ran into Kumadori. He told me to tell you that he wanted to talk to you and that he'll met you at the hotel bar at eight."

He glanced at the clock nearby. "I see. I guess I should head out then."

The former assassin headed to the bar. He saw the pink haired man sitting at a table drinking sake.

Kaku sat down with him. "You wanted to talk?"

The man sat down his drink. "I am sorry yoyoi. I didn't want to hide the truth for you, after you left I felt… guilty yoyoi. You have a right to know." He poured him a cup of sake and gave it to him.

He refused. "You know I don't drink that stuff."

He frowned and sat down the cup near him. "You might need it. After Enies Lobby was attacked during the Buster Call Blueno gathered everyone and kept us hidden to survive the attack. Everyone was injured… Lucci was unconscious, you were barely conscious. You were bleeding a lot Kalifa managed to bandage you up to the best of her abilities. She noticed… that your wounds were a lot worse than originally thought." He paused and gestured to his own chest outlining where the injuries were. "They weren't like sword wounds. Somewhere but there were others that were deeper more pronounced… more recent."

Kaku wondered where this was going. He knew that Zoro had done a decent amount of damage to him. He never questioned the injuries before he just counted himself lucky to survive a nine sword style attack.

"Kaku, they looked like claw marks." He downed his drink and poured another cup. His speech slurred as he talked. "I yoyoi… heard from Blueno that… *hic* Lucci attacked you at Water 7."

He had remembered that in a dream. He thought that was all it was, was just a dream. "Keep going."

"Blueno said *hic* that maybe he had attack you again on the island and we missed it… I don't know yoyoi. We were scared of Lucci. Scared he would wake up and kill us yoyoi… We were worried about you the most after seeing how badly hurt you were we made a pact… yoyoi." He poured another drink. "You wounds opened up and you started bleeding everywhere on the sea train tracks. Kalifa tried again to bandage you back up once again. We feared you wouldn't make it to St. Poplar so… together we decided to have Blueno use the air door and take you back to Water 7 the next closet island. We knew you loved it there yoyoi." He took another drink. "We got Lucci to a doctor, raised money for the bills. We were so scared of him though. He could easily kill any of us. Not to mention we failed yoyoi. So we left… we left him on the island. We went our separate ways but Blueno stayed around to see what he did…" He took another drink his body swayed for a moment.

Kaku downed the drink he gave to him and poured another glass and downed it as well. He hated being drunk but it numbed him briefly. "Lucci tried to kill me… twice why?"

He shrugged. "I don't know maybe it's because of your actions…"

He didn't remember him attacking him. He always thought that he and Lucci were friends. He should have known better he was a violent man who had a strong sense of dark justice. "Man…" He stared at the cup feeling everything lower down on his shoulders.

Kumadori hiccupped again. "Life return." And with that the pink haired man was as sober as a judge.

Kaku was almost jealous for a minute as he felt the world spin around. "I… thank you for finally telling me. I don't feel any better though."

"I'm sure you don't yoyoi. But this too shall pass like the changing seasons." He got up from his chair. "I know nothing about the key or the secret library. As to where you came from all I know is that some Marines brought you to the homeland." He bowed his head. "I am sorry. I hope we met again one day." He started to leave.

Kaku jumped up and yelled. "Hey don't leave me like this." The room spun and he hit the ground.

He heard the bartender complain about drunks.

He couldn't stand up. The world spun around again. He heard footsteps heading towards him. Someone grabbed his arms and helped up.

"Come on."

He looked up to see Sanji and Zoro. "Hey guys why are you here?"

The cook sighed. "Kumadori asked us to get you."

They stabled him and headed back to the room. He staggered around as they headed back to the room. "This is why I don't drink." He stated slurring his words again.

When he got in the room he flopped down on his bed clothes and all. The world felt so dark and cold. He rolled over on his side. He couldn't believe it. Lucci tried to kill him, the man he thought of as a friend a brother. He wasn't that surprised really. No one could be friends with Rob Lucci apparently not even him.

The next day Kaku woke up with a pounding headache. They crew was preparing to go back to the Thousand Sunny. Somehow despite all the noise no one woke him up. He got out of bed and looked down at his winkled clothes. He felt so bad that he didn't bother to change. He figured that could wait until they got back on the ship.

He grabbed the stuff he brought with him and followed everyone back to the ship.

He was glad to be back on the ship. It was beginning to feel like home. He was heading to the bathroom to change when he was stopped by Robin.

"Kaku I have something for you."

"What is it?" He asked as she handed him some books tied in thread binding.

"Kumadori gave this to me to give to you. He wanted to be sure you got it."

He frowned and undid the binding. He looked through the book titles there was three of them. He smiled the brightest smile she had ever seen from him.

"What is it?"

"There books that he used to read to me as a child." He smiled again and flipped through them. "I'm surprised to see them." Something feel out of one of the books. He picked it up.

"What does it say?"

"It's says: found these after the Buster Call. Don't know how they survived. Enjoy, Kumadori." He put the note in another book and something else fell out. He picked it up. It was a bunch of pictures. "I forgot about these."

She looked over at them. "Pictures?"

"Yeah." He held out one. "Us as kids," He lifted up another. "I think this one was from where I first came to Enies Lobby." He lifted up the last one. "Oh…" It was of Water 7 of him, Lucci, Kalifa, Galley-la and Iceberg. He felt a twinge of pain in his heart. He looked at the pictures. "Don't know where I can put these though." He noted the scorched sides of the one from his childhood. He really was surprised it lasted the bombing. He stuck them back in the book.

She held out her hand. "I'll take the books to the library. It can be your personal contribution."

He handed them over to her and headed to the bathroom to change.

She walked to the library and set the books down. Retrieving the note and sitting it aside she got the pictures. She scanned the other books for anything else. Not finding anything she sat the books on the shelf and got the pictures.

She headed to Usopp and Franky's workshop. "Hey long nose."

"Yeah Robin?" He asked looking up at her.

She held out the photos. "Kaku found these in the books that Kumadori gave him."

He looked at them and raised his eyebrows.

"Do you think that maybe you can make a frame for them? I would like to do something nice for him."

He took them and looked at them. "Oh yeah no problem."

She smiled. "Good." She headed back to the deck the sun shined brightly above. She shielded her eyes and smiled. "I hope this brings you happiness." She whispered to herself as she set off to find a good spot to read.

**A/N: **Man that chapter was long *sigh* anyways. I'm sorry it took so long to get this done; Kumadori gave me tons of trouble. Why do you have to be so difficult! *cries* Anyways sorry this one was so long, I was going to break it up like the chapter about Jyabura but there was no good spot to break it off so meh, nearly 20 page chapter….Thanks everyone for the reviews and favorites.


	10. Chapter 10

Humanity

Chapter 9

The giraffe wonders! A sheep in secretary's clothing!

Kaku suppressed a yawn as he looked through one of the books Kumadori gave him. Sanji was cooking lunch and occasionally glanced over at him. It had been a two weeks since they left the last island. Kaku had calmed down since then but spent of his time either reading or being very quiet. Sanji still felt bad for fighting with him back on the last island but it was something that had to be done. He had seen people act out like that before, looking for a fight living like a wild animal almost. What was he to expect? After all the other man had spent all his life on a training camp for killers.

Sanji put out his cigarette and looked over to Kaku. "I told you, you keep hanging around here I'm going to teach you how to cook."

Kaku laughed and set the book down. "Well if you're so damn determined." He walked over to the counter and looked at the curry Sanji was making. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

He started trying to explain the process of making the food when he was interrupted by Robin walking into the kitchen.

"Sanji, Nami was wondering if you had a snack ready. She's apparently hungry."

The cook grabbed up a slice of cake and drink and left the kitchen so fast Kaku was sure he saw smoke coming off his feet. The assassin laughed. "Man Sanji is hopeless." He stirred the food.

"Are you cooking?"

"Not really. Sanji keeps trying to teach me how to do it because I keep hanging around the kitchen." He said with a laugh.

She walked closer to him and looked down at the pot. "It looks like curry. I think you're doing fine." She sat on the table and rested her hand on her chin. "Truth is I just used Nami to get Sanji out of here."

"Oh?" he asked sitting at the table with her.

"From what I have seen Sanji will be gone for about ten minutes give or take. Showering her with his special brand of love. It's enough time for us to talk."

"About?"

She slide a box across the table. "I wanted to give these to you in private."

He raised an eyebrow and lifted the lid on the box. Inside was the pictures in nice frames. "The pictures."

"I had Usopp make frames for them. I figured you would appreciate it them that way they won't get damaged."

He smiled. "Thank you Robin. I was worried that you were upset with me or something."

"Not at all…" she looked down at the table. "There is something I wanted to tell you about," she started but was interrupted by Sanji reentering the kitchen.

"There you are Robin dear. I thought you were coming along too."

"Oh no. Not in the mood for cake." She got up from the table. She looked at Kaku and smiled trying to convey they would talk later. It could wait. Last thing she wanted to do was upset him. She headed to the door when she heard Sanji fuss at Kaku.

"The stove is too high you'll burn it."

"You left me with it."

She laughed to herself as she left the kitchen. She reached walked to the library to find a good book. She walked in and stared at the shelves. She sighed. She knew soon she would have to tell them about the book. She reached in her pocket and pulled out the necklace that Nami had found at Kirin Island. It was obviously something that belonged to his family. She pulled out a note as well. She found this in the book. She finished the book. Knowing more about his past then he did weighed her down. She frowned again and looked at the books around her. She reached up to one she hadn't read in a while she paused when she heard.

"Land!" Usopp called. He opened the door. "Robin-san we're near an island."

She turned and smiled. "Okay Usopp."

He paused. "Oh yeah, did you give Kaku the picture frames?"

"I did and he liked them." She was hoping to use the pictures to ease into a conversation with him over his past and what she had learned in that book.

"Good I'm glad." He left the room.

She followed suit. She saw the island approaching them and wondered what they would find on this island.

At the dock Nami was fighting with the dock manager.

"Look can we just dock her long enough to resupply!"

"No, no pirates allowed without a permit. The document is needed to incase you act like pirates." The dock worker frowned. He hated when pirates showed up to this island.

"So we can't dock without the permit? Where do we get it?"

"You have about an hour to go to the mayor's office and apply for one. If you are approved I will come and get you if not you ship off."

She sighed and looked at the others. If the mayor had any information on them it would be difficult to get this permit. "Do we really need to dock here that bad?"

"We're running low on food. Someone," said Sanji looking at Luffy. "Ate all the meat."

"Aw, but I was hungry."

"I need to buy medicine." Said Chopper

"Cola! I need cola!" said Franky doing his super pose.

She frowned. Looked like they had to get this permit to dock their ship. "Okay so what exactly do we have to do?"

He handed her a form. "Fill this out and I'll call the mayor's office and let them knows that you're coming. Give the sectary the paper and she'll make the decision."

"The sectary will? What puts her in charge?"

He sighed. "She knows a lot about pirates." He said with a shrug. "I know the mayor usually lets the sectary do this, if the mayor saw and signed everything she would never get anything done."

She rolled her eyes. So annoying, some sectary had to decide if they could dock or not. She was probably a bitch too. She looked at the form it asked simple questions like: name of crew, amount in party, name of ship. She filled it out and got Luffy to sign it.

The dock manager came back a few minutes later. "She'll see you. All you need to do now is take it to the office. Only one of you can go though."

"That's fine." She folded up the form and stuck it in her pocket. "I'll go. You guys behave."

"Are the captain?" he asked

She shook her head and pointed at Luffy. "He is."

The dock manager looked at Luffy who was currently trying to do secret handshake with Usopp. "Him?"

She nodded. "And that is why I'm going."

She headed off into town frowning the whole way. This was the stupidest thing ever.

At the mayor's office a few minutes earlier, Kalifa suppressed another yawn. This job wasn't as exciting as her job at Water 7. Mayor Yellow was a simple woman, she kept a strict schedule never deviated from her plans heck the woman had her lunch at the same place every day. So different from Iceberg who was very unpredictable. He may have been a character and sometimes annoying to keep up with his schedule that was controlled by his whims but he was entertaining. She almost felt bad for trying to kill him.

She shook her head. She hated when she got like this. Maybe she should have gotten a job doing something else; maybe there she wouldn't think of Iceberg so much. Her thoughts were broken up by the phone ringing.

She answered it. "Hello Kalifa speaking."

It was the dock manager. "Hey there, we got some pirates looking to dock her."

"Get them to fill out the form and send it up here."

"Okay they are on their way."

She hung up the phone and got out the papers for the docking forms. So much paper work for a small thing. She supposed the mayor had her reasons for doing such things but what did the former assassin know. As she laid out the papers there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and a woman walked in. "Apparently I need to put in a request just to dock at this island." Nami said sounding annoyed her eyes widened. "You!"

Kalifa's mouth fell open. "You!"

"Small world isn't it?" she asked with a laugh.

"You…" she growled. She jumped up from her desk. "How ironic! I should have known this would happen!"

She blinked. "Yeah can you just sign this so we can dock. I don't have all day."

She bit her lip. She considered attacking her. She growled again. "I should kill you for what you did to me."

"What I did to you? You almost killed me and Sanji, you dumb woman."

She gasped. Offended she then smirked. "Oh you know… I could just not sign your papers. I can careless about you pirates," she spit out the last words with venom. "You can all starve on your ship." She laughed evilly. "Serves you right for what you guys did to us."

"What we did to you! You guys arrested Robin, tried to kill us and you act like the victim here!" She considered turning away and forcing the others to go to another ship. She wondered if they could make it to the next island with the supplies they had. She then smirked maybe she could get her to cooperate and they could get their supplies. She almost hated doing it. She put on an innocent face it was manipulation time. "But you know we don't have enough supplies to get to the next island… we might starve out there on the ocean alone."

"Serves you right."

"Poor Kaku, after all he went though."

Kalifa paused, her eyes widened briefly. "Kaku? As in CP9 Kaku?"

How many Kakus were there out there? What a dumb question? "Yeah one in the same."

She looked around thinking. She wouldn't want to hurt her dear friend by accident. But what was he doing with the pirates. She tried to maintain a poker face but her mind was running wild. Here she could get revenge on the navigator but on the other hand she didn't want to hurt Kaku. Thinking of him starving to death brought a heavy feeling to her heart but how did she know she wasn't lying. "Prove it."

"Fine, I'll get him. Let the dock manager know that I need to bring him with me they only want one of us up here."

She called the dock manager and sent Nami back to the dock. She hopped that Kaku was with them she would love to see him again and know that he was well.

Kaku had no idea why Nami insisted he come along with her. All she said was that she needed him much to the disappointment of Sanji. At the rate his luck was going the cook would take it personal and then he would have a real problem on his hands.

They headed into the mayor's office. "So why are we here?"

She ignored him and flung open the doors to Kalifa's office. "I brought him."

He walked in behind her still confused then he saw Kalifa. "Kalifa!" He exclaimed. He smiled. "I see you're still playing sectary."

She ran over to him and hugged him a lot tighter than he expected. "That's sexual harassment."

He laughed. "You're the one hugging me."

She let him go and looked him over. She smiled she briefly looked like she was going to cry but she blocked it. A good assassin never showed her emotions. "I see you are unharmed."

"Chopper the doctor put me back together. How have you been?"

Nami cut him off. "Okay see, Kalifa he's with us alive and well so sign the damn paper so we can get done and leave."

She glared at her. She walked over to her desk and signed the papers. "Here," she shoved them in her hands. "While you're at it, replace my dress you tore up."

Nami rolled her eyes. "Yeah well I wouldn't have had to do that if you didn't hide your key there."

She blushed. "That's sexual harassment! That dress didn't have any pockets where else was I supposed to put it!"

"Carry a purse or something!"

Kaku jumped in before it got messy. Both women looked like they were getting ready to rip each other's throats out. "Ladies stop it."

The navigator shot a dirty look at him and headed to the door. "I'm getting this to the dock manager. Kaku if you want to visit that's fine we won't leave without you." With that she was gone.

Kaku looked at Kalifa. He knew he was going to ask her the same questions as he did the other three. He figured it wasn't likely she knew much though unlike with the others their age gap was small. The two of them trained together and were fairly close though the woman tried to hide it from time to time. "We should catch up." He said smiling.

She nodded. "It's time for my lunch break anyways." She held out her arm which he took.

"Let's go then."

The two of them headed out the office, Kaku was happy to know that she was okay. He liked her despite her moments. He looked over at the blonde woman. He realized that honestly he had missed her. He found himself wondering if she was drugged much like he was. He frowned he hoped not. He thought about what he should ask her maybe she really didn't know anything? He looked at her again she maintained her poker face. She was a hard book to read sometimes. Maybe he wouldn't ask her those questions after all.

**A/N: **Ah, a short chapter this time. In case it wasn't obvious… I ship Kaku and Kalifa (as well as Kaku and one of the Straw hat ladies…) anyways I don't plan on having any pairing in this story keeping in true spirit of One Piece not to mention I feel that a pairing would throw the course of the story off. So as for warning there will be subtle hints of him and Kalifa in the story but nothing more than that.

On that note, I plan on writing other stories about CP9. One is going to be a comedy about all of them and the other is going to be a Kaku and Kalifa story. I don't plan on writing them until I finish this since I tend to neglect stories when I start new ones.


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